


U N D E R S T A N D I N G

by Yawh



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Chara is EVIL! No redemption., F/F, F/M, Flowey may be Redeemed., Frisk Needs A Hug, Gen, M/M, Memory Watching - Freeform, Multi, My Writing Attempting to Convey Emotions and Failing, Other, Resets, Sans Magic STRONG, Sans Memories, Sans Needs A Hug, Sans Past, Sans Remembers Resets, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Trying to help Sans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-08-07 23:08:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7733386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yawh/pseuds/Yawh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sans knows there will not be anymore resets, Frisk promised. They all have their happy ended, but still Sans can't find his own happiness. His memories haunt him, and no one can understand. After all, he's the only person who fully remembers the horrour of the resets. </p><p>Everyone wants to understand Sans, but he won't open up. So, G A S T E R decides that he'll help everyone get that understanding they so crave. </p><p>It might get worse for Sans, before it gets better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The start - just laying down the backbone of the story.

It was over, and they finally had a successful conclusion.

Sans however, well it was different for him.

It wasn't that he was unhappy about the outcome, or even that he thought Frisk would be resetting again. Rather, it was because he still remembered. He _**ALWAYS**_ remembered, and could never forget. Thousands, _ **THOUSANDS**_ , of resets or save points. The memory of all these timelines haunted him. It was not something that anyone could forget - Nor was it something that anyone could understand.

Talking helped people with their problems, but Sans would never be able to find someone that actually, _truly_ , understood.

Moreover, his family was noticing.

Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Frisk, Asgore, even Mettaton had noticed. They knew something was wrong, but they could not ever figure out just what it was. Sans would never tell them either, just passively evade any question - or if the questioning got too heavy, he would 'Shortcut' away.

"I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY MY BROTHER WILL NOT INFORM US OF HIS PROBLEMS - I THE GREAT PAPYRUS OF ALL PEOPLE, COULD HELP HIM."

It was a meeting, damn near an intervention, in Alphys’ true lab.

Frisk looked almost guilty, staring at the floor.

A hand was placed upon their head, causing them to look up and see their mother, “It is not your fault My Child.”

Nevertheless, it was.

Frisk did not remember in full, but they did not need to. They knew that some horrible things had happened in some of the timelines, mostly because of their ability to reset. They also knew they most likely didn’t remember a full ten percent of what happened. For whatever reason, all of those memories were blacked out for them.

They started to sign, ‘ _I know but… I wish I could know, I wish I could remember.’_

This confused the majority of the people in the room, “What do you mean My Child?” Toriel was the first to ask.

“What’s that suppose to mean PUNK?” Came Undyne’s inquiry, only MUCH louder.

However, they did not answer.

Sans wouldn’t like it.

Someone was watching, someone whose name was erased and never to be remembered save for one person. This someone saw everything, knew everything, felt everything. They were and they weren’t, good and bad, substance and _void_ , G A S T E R. They watched Sans, they watched the Universe, the Multiverse, and they W A N T E D.

They wanted someone to understand their most dear person. They wanted E V E R Y O N E to understand. Therefore, he would make it so, because he was everything and nothing all at once.

Alarms went off, Alphys ran around frantically, “T-T-THIS IS N-NOT GOOD, This shouldn’t be happening this can’t be happening! …”

They all stared, tense and looking around, but knowing better than to touch anything.

Sans teleported in, right in the middle of Alphys checking the instruments. Wild-eyed, he rushed to help her, because Sans KNEW this alarm. Everyone acknowledged the alarm as something incredibly serious before Sans entered, but now that he was there… Moving around like that, sweating, they knew this was even more serious than they had thought.

“we need to get out; we all need to get out.” Sans frantically said, stopping with the instruments and instead turning to the people he cared about most, “evacuate the whole area of hotlands, at the very least”

“What’s going on?” The calm, yet worried Asgore inquired, as they started to job toward the exit, everyone in tow.

“no time to explain.” Sans said, but he also did not W A N T to.

“My Child, stay close to me.” Toriel said, holding Frisk’s hand in a death grip, the most worried she’d ever been. She could not lose another child, not after having just gotten them.

But it was no good.

An explosion erupted from the middle of the lab, and it tore through the walls faster than they could run, and they saw it. Magic so strong, so full, so beautiful that they did not want to run anymore. Colours that they didn’t know, knowledge that was on the tip of their tongues but never in their brain, and never tangible, it laid R I G H T there. They would not make it anyway – So what harm could it really do, giving up?

Moreover, the one person that could actually get away, had given up a long time ago.

Consumed was a good word for it, when the lights hit them. Consumed and W R O N G. They had everything, but they were nothing.

Then they became only substance again, but it paled in comparison to what they were only a few moments ago.

This shock did not last that long, as they quickly look category of their surroundings and just how everyone was. They were all there, no issue. Of course, they all had various expressions in emotion. Toriel looked so relieved, holding Frisk for dear life, and the others looked relieved too – Each looking at their respective most important person.

Sans looked to Papyrus

Asgore looked to Toriel

Toriel looked to Frisk

Undyne and Alphys looked to each other.

And Mettaton at Papyrus. _Out of the corner of his eye, trying to make it the least amount of obvious as possible._

There was someone else among them. A black figure, upon a closer look the black faded into the shape of a head, cracks running down the skull, black holes for eyes. Everything about the figure seemed sharp – But fading along the edges in what almost looked like a screen glitch. Their whole being seemed to emote, but words did not come, even as the figures mouth opened. Sans just looked terrified, but didn’t so much as move away from the _void_ in front of them.

There was a screeching sound in their heads, cutting off all exclamations of panic that just couldn’t be heard in the darkness surrounding them.

_‘Hello, I am G A S T E R, I am V O I D, everything and nothing, and U N D E R S T A N D I N G. You all want U N D E R S T A N D I N G, do you not? You want to U N D E R S T A N D Sans, like no one should be able to. I will allow it, I will make it happen, because I am nothing, and V O I D.’_

The voice was so clear, crystal in their heads. It blocked out all other thoughts, all except the most basic and strong.

The V O I D around them lit, not form something normal or home, or something that should even be possible, but instead with something akin to a screen, a television, yet somehow nothing close to it. To simplify this however, their minds just called it a screen. After all, coming up with new words to describe something isn’t an action done in such a tense and curious situation.

_‘I will show you time, E R A S E D time. Times that, you should not remember, but you will. This will make you U N D E R S T A N D, just like Sans.’_

Show them, G A S T E R was going to _show_ them other timelines, the nightmares that only Sans himself could remember.

This was either a nightmare, or a blessing. Such was the duality of the void.

G A S T E R left after he finished speaking, and things became lighter. There was ground, and comfort, but it was on the edge of the mind, that it was not real. It still looked like a home, Toriel’s home to be exact. A replica in the void, in which the screen started to act like an actual screen, as though it was a TV show having been paused.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS ALL THAT?!” Came the screeching, near panicked voice of the former Captain of the Royal Guard.

“T-T-The Core, it B-Br-Broke, and when the C-core breaks that, what we just E-experienced hap-p-pens. Its happ-p-pened before but… It’s h-hard to reme-m-mber.” Alphys offers up part of an explanation, trying to calm her girlfriend, not wanting the stressful situation to get worse by her determination to get answers.

“Are you sure you are okay my child?” Toriel asked her child, petting their head in a form of comfort. Getting a short nod in return, Papyrus rushed over to Frisk as well.

“HUMAN! I THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL PROTECT YOU IN THIS PLACE! I WILL MAKE SURE THAT FAMILIAR FIGURE DOES NOT HARM YOU, OR MY NAME ISN’T THE PAPYRUS THE GREAT!” Even Papyrus’ endless confidence was dented in this situation – Especially when he mentioned that the figure seemed familiar to him.

Sans on the other hand, was still frozen stiff, hands in his pockets, staring at the ‘TV’ that was in the room. His hands were in his pockets, but they were bunched into fists.

Frisk wiggled away from the worried ground and stepped toward Sans, tugging on their jacket to get his attention, Signing, ‘ _D U N K L E, it will be okay.’_

Frisk knew though, that this would be hard. If what the V O I D had said was accurate, they would be watching exactly what was wrong with Sans, and they would be doing it when Sans himself was extremely emotionally raw. Still, Sans forced himself to relax and give the kid a reassuring noogie, moving over to the ‘couch’ and sitting himself.

 

It didn’t really matter did it, certainly everyone  seeing a few resets would not matter, wouldn’t change anything. G A S T E R had hurt Sans enough in this life; surely, the man would not attempt to continue doing so now. They were probably just neutral or pacifist runs. At least, Sans H O P E D.

Asgore gathered his wits enough to speak out, “Perhaps we should all follow Sans example and take a seat, standing around in separate conversations will not help solve this issue.”

The man was a true politician, because even if you hated the guy, you STILL listened to what he said. The man just opened his mouth and people would follow what he said. It was impressive, to say the least.

So they did, they all sat, and got lost in their own thoughts for a good minute, gathering them from their previous shattered state. Shattered they were, because one doesn’t become V O I D, and not come out of the situation completely unchanged.

“Could you perhaps tell us a little bit of what is happening here Sans?” The King asked his judge, but as softly as possible. He knew Sans well enough to know that the evasion could possibly start with even the most meaningless of questions.

Everyone looked at the short skeleton so curious, so in NEED of information though, that he could not refuse.

“i don’t really know. it’s hard to say with that man, just what he has planned. it’s best to be on our toes as well. there should be no need to say this, but undoubtedly that man will not allow us to leave until we’ve given him what he wants.” And Sans was serious, looking into his eyes everyone could tell, especially the lack of puns.

“B-b-but what d-does he want?” Alphys questioned, shuddering along the inquiry.

“i’m guessing that we just need to watch the little ‘screen’ until he sends us back. he probably will send us back anyway; there is no reason for him to keep us here. i’m not really sure what the screen will show, but it’s probably best we all prepare ourselves.” Not a single pun was uttered.

They all stayed quiet; there was not really anything else that needed saying. As they all remained quiet, the ‘TV’ screen started to move. It was just a slow movement, nothing that really mattered, just a bed of flowers; it almost looked like a peaceful moment. The group wondered why the V O I D had made such a big deal about it, wondered how this would help them U N D E R S T A N D Sans.

Until a person hit that bed of flowers.

Frisk had showed up on screen, and it seemed like the start of something big, for everyone involved.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We start getting into the actual story, emotions all around, sobbing for everyone!

## Chapter Two

“That is you right there, isn’t it punk?” Undyne said, carefully examining the screen.

Frisk’s only response was to nod their head, worried about things. Worried about the perception the others would have of them after these secrets were shown. Sure, they did not KNOW for sure what happened, but they knew that in some timelines, it was not good. They could only hope that their family still cared about them after all this. After all, Sans did, so it shouldn’t be a problem. _Right?_

####  **Frisk hit the surprisingly soft ground, looking around at their surroundings. There did not seem to be any surprise or worry on their face. They did not even take in their surroundings as they walked out of the room, down a hallway, and into a room that was mostly dark save for one lit place, in this lit place laid a flower, Flowey.**

“oh, that can’t be good…” Sans muttered, watching the screen closely. There did not seem to be any signs that Frisk was new to the Under Ground, so it clearly hadn’t been Frisks first time around. Still, seeing that flower face off against Frisk made him feel protective, even if only a little.

“HUMAN, WILL THE FLOWER HURT YOU?” Papyrus asked, worried for his friend. Of all the people in the room, Papyrus was probably one of the most hurt by the flower, considering the betrayal Flowey had put him through.

“Do not worry Papyrus; I come in time to stop them from being hurt.” Toriel reassured the sensitive skeleton, but her hands had tightened into fists at the idea of watching anyone hurt her child.

Alphys looked guilty, playing with their fingers. Alphys created Flowey, so should Frisk get hurt, it was Alphys fault.

Undyne noticed her girlfriend falling into such thoughts, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to comfort Alphys.

####  **“Howdy, I’m Flowey, Flowey the Flower. You’re new to the UNDERGROUND, aren’tcha. Golly, you must be so confused. Someone ought to teach you how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do. Ready?”**

 

####  **The battle started, and Frisks soul floated out of their body. A deep, dark red, the colour of determination.**

 

####  **“See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of everyone’s being! Your SOUL starts off weak, but you can get stronger by gaining a lot of LOVE – but I’m sure you already knew that, Frisk.”**

 

####  **Frisk tensed, their soul looking smaller, but grew only a minute later. After all, they had DETERMINATION. Someone, one person knowing, would not stop them.**

 

####  **“You want some LOVE, don’t you?” Flowey continued, as if he had not just drop a huge secret. “Don’t worry; I’ll share some with you! Down here, little white ‘Friendliness Pellets’ are you ready? Move around, get as many as you can!”**

 

####  **Flowey summoned the, ‘Friendliness Pellets’ and they moved toward Frisks sou** **l, but she dodged them with no issue. This of course, caused Flowey some mild irritation.**

 

####  **“Hey buddy, you missed them. Let’s try again okay?” Frisk however, just dodged the slow moving pellets once again, “Is this a joke, are you brain-dead? RUN INTO THE BULLETS – I mean Friendliness Pellets”**

 

####  **Frisk dodged.**

 

####  **“You know what’s going on here, don’t you? You just wanted to see me suffer.” Flowey said, his whole face contorting into something familiar and evil. Friendliness pellets appeared around him in a huge circle, leaving no gaps to run or hide, “DIE!”**

 

####  **The circle started to close in.**

 

####  **However, Toriel entered, blasting away the flower with a ball of fire magic, a worried expression painted onto her face.**

The room let out a sign of relief. Even though Toriel had told everyone, they would save their Frisk.

“I’m so s-sorry that hap-ppened to you Fr-risk.” Alphys said, hanging their heads.

‘It’s not your fault A L P H Y S, I know that.’ Frisk signed to their friend with a small reassuring smile. Undyne appreciated this, giving the little punk a thumb up behind Alphys back.

Sans was deep in thought, going over the scene. It seemed that his thought that it was not the first run for Frisk definitely ran seemed correct. The way that Flowey dealt with it was actually similar to Sans. Pretty much just following the status quo.

Papyrus was the only one that actually noticed that Sans was so deep in thought. This made Papyrus worried for his brother, but there was nothing he could do.

There was only the hope that this would actually help – and not end up hurting his brother even farther.

####  **“What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth. Do not be afraid my child, I am Toriel, caretaker of the ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone such as yourself has fallen down. You’re the first human to come through in a long time. Come! I will guide you through the catacombs.”**

 

####  **As Toriel spoke, Frisk’s soul melded back into their body. Toriel watched with gentle, concerned eyes. Just to make sure that there wasn’t anything overly wrong with them.**

 

####  **However, Frisk showed no expression, just nodded and followed closely after.**

 

####  **Along the way, they came across a save point.**

 

“WHAT IS THAT SPARKLE? I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT BEFORE.” Papyrus looked interested, a smile gracing his face. He loved to learn new things, and as always was facing his brother for answers.

Sans had never actually SEEN one himself, but he knew what it was.

“that’s, well, it’s a little hard to explain pap. when a human has a lot of determination they can see those little ‘sparkles’ and they help them should they ever die. i’m sure that you’ll see it at work at some point.” Sans attempted to explain, but also kept true to the fact he really did not want the people around him knowing these things.

“They most certainly will NOT!” Toriel stated sternly, causing Sans to sweat. He hadn’t thought about what seeing the way it worked would have meant for Frisk. Frisk had to die, and Toriel would have to watch it. Damn, why had he opened his big mouth again?

He just frantically nodded in agreement.

Alphys looked closely at the sparkle. Having worked with determination before, she was interested in what effects it had. Determination is a powerful force, especially when it comes to humans using it. Without a doubt, it would be formidable.

Frisk just kept their head down, despite the fact Toriel and the others did not seem all that upset or worried about the sparkle.

Frisk knew though, knew that everyone would be in shock, or disgust, at the fact that many of the fighters had killed their little human friend. No one ever remembered because of the reset, but Frisk knew, even though the memories fade after awhile.

That is how it had always worked for them. They would sharply remember each reset for a few days, but after that, it would fade. Probably a copping mechanism of some sort – At least what is what they thought. Because Frisk did not want the memories, the only time that they ever did was when they thought of Sans loneliness.

Asgore looked ashamed of himself for a completely different reason. Watching Toriel protect the child, call it an innocent, look down on someone that would have hurt it, well it didn’t make him feel good.

“I’m sorry Tori.” Asgore murmured to her, “I thought I was doing the right thing, but I know now that I was just being a coward.”

All he got for the admission and apology was a glare, “Yes, you were a coward.”

She turned back to the screen, prepared to watch her child’s adventures farther, hoping only for the best. Ignoring Asgore’s guilty expression, he deserved to feel that way, after all.

####  **Toriel and Frisk walked through the ruins. They were met with puzzles, mazes, and tests of independence.**

 

####  **There was a froggit.**

 

####  **It had jumped right in front of Frisk, Toriel’s back was turned, and Frisk stumbled backward, their foot flying up. Before they even knew what was happening, they had kicked the froggit, and it dissipated in a swarm of dust.**

 

####  **It was a nightmare right? There was no way that actually happened right? It was just a kick, a stumble. IT COULD N O T BE R E A L.**

 

Everyone looked at the screen in varying degrees of shock, but Frisk was crying, along with themselves on the screen.

Tears silently dripped from their eyes, hating what they had just seen, what they had caused.

“look kiddo, it wasn’t your fault. it was clearly an accident. everyone knows that.” Sans reassured, before anyone else could get over his, and or, her, shock.

Toriel quickly snapped out of it and pulled their child into a hug, whispering reassuring things to them, and everyone quickly jumped onto that bandwagon.

“You’re way too much of a nerd to ever actually mean to do something like that!” Undyne said, with a smile as wide as her face.

“W-we know you are t-too good to h-have meant to d-do something like that Frisk!” Alphys forced out.

Papyrus gathered himself, “HUMAN, WE ALL KNOW THAT YOU DIDN’T MEAN TO DO IT!”

“Darling, you are far too precious, everyone believes in you, just as I do.” Mettaton said, before striking a pose.

Again, tears filled Frisk’s eyes, but this time they were of happiness. Their family believed in them, which was all that really mattered. One mistake, one LV, it did not matter as long as their family was there with them.

####  **The Frisk on screen didn’t have that comfort.**

 

####  **Instead, they had to hastily rub the tears off their face, guilty and hurting. How could they have done that, it was an accident, it wasn’t their fault, ‘It’s okay Frisk, it’s okay. Shush, you know it felt good.’**

 

####  **The words were a whisper, but Frisk frantically shock their head. It did not make sense.**

They all heard it, and more importantly, they could all see it. A figure standing beside Frisk, which looked just like Frisk but with bright red eyes, whispering in their ear.

“What the hell is that thing?!” Undyne yelled, wanting to jump through the screen and strangle the thing that made the nerd think such horrible thoughts.

A few people in the room just stared at the figure, Asgore and Toriel. They knew, of course, that this was their child. Chara, the first human child to have fallen, but it did not make sense.

“I… I don’t know what to make of this…” Toriel whispered to herself, “Child is this really what happened to you?”

Frisk shook their head, but didn’t explain farther, still red and puffy from crying.

“I-it seems like Frisk thems-s-selves can’t see it. It m-must seem like F-Frisk is coming up with the thoughts of th-their own fruition.” Alphys murmured out, it was meant to be just to themselves, but with everyone so caught up in their own thoughts; it was heard loud and clear.

“SURELY THE HUMAN DOESN’T THINK THEMSELVES CAPABLE OF SUCH THOUGHTS!” Papyrus said, with his typical sunny personality.

“I don’t think it works that way Papyrus.” Undyne spoke, regretfully, “We all know the wimp can’t so much as hurt a tomato, but the way that sick shadow spoke right now, making it seem like Frisk thought it… I don’t think it’s that simple.”

Undyne was sick though, the thought of someone manipulating someone in such a manner was disgusting to her. It was not surprising she felt this way, as she was a straightforward fighter and person.

Sans was glaring at the screen.

Glaring.

No one had ever seen Sans look so emotional before. Quietly, Undyne tabbed everyone and had them look in that direction. It was surprising; it was … Scary, because if something caused Sans to have so much emotion, so much feeling, then it must have been something big.

Sans fought to control his magic. The sight of the demon made that a struggle. Every time that he met the demon it was a similar struggle, but he was actually better at control because of this. Sans could bet that his eye did not even flare. This was good, because he did not want to have to answer any questions. No one _really_ knew about his magic and abilities, and he liked to keep it that way.

“Bonehead everything okay over there?” Undyne asked, almost cautiously.

Just as she spoke, Sans snapped out of it, “Totally fine, you could almost say I’m doing, _sansational_.”

They knew of course, that he was hiding behind a pun. What could they do though? Everyone knew that he would not just explain it, that was the only reason that the whole situation had even gotten to where it was now.

The screen started to play again, stalling any farther attempts anyway.

####  **Toriel eventually had to leave, giving Frisk a cell phone before she went on her way, saying that she would be back soon.**

 

####  **Frisk was still, traumatized, not understanding what was happening. They had only come back to go through again, to make friends again, and now this had happened, a horrible accident – The Froggit didn’t deserve that. There was not anything they could do to take it back either, of course, they could reset, but it was just ONE Froggit. In the grand scheme of things, it did not really matter, did it?**

 

####  **‘None of them really matter.’ The voice of their thoughts came to them, ‘It’s okay to kill any of them, after all we will just reset anyway. No harm in finding out… In seeing what might happen.’**

 

Everyone held angered looks on their faces, watching Frisk being manipulated like that. There was not anything that they could do though – So they just hoped that Frisk pulled through, they KNEW that Frisk pulled through after all, as they were right next to them.

Still, the whispers gave them chills.

####  **Frisk shook their head. No.**

 

####  **They left the room behind, having decided that there was no reason to stay there any longer. Toriel called afterward, checking up, but Frisk just tapped on the phone, Toriel seemed to understand however.**

 

####  **Magic phone – Right.**

 

####  **They came across more monsters, but Frisk spared them all. Even though their thoughts were telling them to do otherwise.**

 

####  **‘I won’t, I do not want to do something like that. These are my friends we are talking about.’ Frisk thought to themselves as they moved along.**

 

####  **Numb, that is how Frisk felt. Tears having long since dried, they made their way to Toriel’s house. The puzzles were easy, as Frisk could feel the phantoms of having solved them before. They didn’t even need to think, and it made being numb so much easier. Once they got there, they ran into Toriel, who was right in the middle of calling them.**

 

####  **“Oh my child! You are not hurt are you? Not even a scratch, which is impressive, but still you should not have come this far without me, it was dangerous. Not to mention it was irresponsible of me to do so. I suppose that I cannot hide the surprise from you much longer. Come along small one.”**

 

####  **With a gentle smile, Toriel held Frisk’s hand as they moved into the warm house. Everything just seemed so nice in there, so peaceful. Like everything, they had done before had been forgive. They were with their mother after all – She would not judge them.**

 

####  **“Do you smell that? It is butterscotch-cinnamon pie. I thought we might celebrate your arrival, so we can have the snail pie another time. I also have another surprise for you.”**

 

####  **Toriel held Frisks hand again, leading them toward a new room, which was just for them.**

 

####  **“Here we are a room of your own.” Toriel patted Frisk’s head for a moment, making Frisk feel warm inside, “Oh! Is something burning? I best go check on that. Please my child, make yourself at home.”**

 

####  **Watching their mother walk away, Frisk moved toward their bedroom and just lay in bed. Tomorrow would be a better day, they would face mom and go to Snowdin, meeting all their other friends – One mistake would not ruin this reset for them.**

 

####  **With that, they drifted off to sleep.**

“HUMAN YOU AND TORIEL HAVE FOUND EACHOTHER AGAIN, IT IS VERY TOUCHING!” Papyrus motioned toward the TV, unknowing of the real emotions of the moment, “I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM SO HAPPY FOR THE TELEVISION VERSION OF YOU!”

Regardless, it definitely broke the tense atmosphere.

“ _tibia_ honest i was getting worried there for a second, but now that they are with toriel it shouldn’t be a problem.” Sans said, almost relieved. This version of the human was guilty, and as far as he was concerned that meant he would not be seeing genocide run, which made him more than happy.

“SANS! DON’T USE PUNS FOR SUCH A SPECIAL MOMENT!”

“but i thought it was _humerus_.”

“SANS!!!” Papyrus was stamping his foot, very animated, causing Frisk to giggle into their hand. Sans shot them a sideways glance, happy that him and his brothers antics had helped cheer the kid up.

“come on pap, you know that it was _pun_ ny, i wouldn’t tell a _fibula_.” Sans said, and the back and forth continued.

“Hey, what is that disgusting thing that is trying to get the Nerd to do bad things?” Undyne asked, crossing her arms, trying to bring the conversation back to a serious point.

The bone brothers stopped their horsing around.

“The one that is whispering to Frisk, it looks like my child, Chara.” The second the name was mentioned, Frisk flinched violently, trembling, and climbing into Sans lap. This of course, had Sans going wide-eyed. It was not a situation he was used too.

“come on kiddo, it’ll be fine. they aren’t around, and can’t hurt you.” Sans said softly, rubbing Frisk’s back.

“I am sorry my child, I will not mention their name again if it upsets you so.” Toriel said, looking truly regretful, but also upset. Not only had she hurt Frisk by saying the name, but now she could no longer talk about her past child around Frisk… However, Toriel was determined to stay strong.

“I-I think that w-what the…” Alphys paused, wondering what to call the apparition, “Thought Wh-hisp-per could be is l-left over d-d-determ-mination. D-Determination is v-very str-rong in humans and c-could even cause s-something like this-s.”

It was a strong theory.

“URGH! I AM JUST SO FRUSTRATED! I WANT TO HELP THE STUPID NERD BUT ALL I CAN DO IS WATCH!” Undyne screamed, looking around ready to throw something around, magical spears forming around her. However, Alphys quickly calmed her girlfriend down.

“P-Please c-calm down Undyne, u-uhm you c-could hurt someone…” Alphys murmured, but it worked.

Everyone was silent, so it did not take long for the screen to continue playing.

####  **When Frisk woke, it was no surprise that they greeted the day with much more enthusiasm. After all, there was the smell of their mother’s pie right next to them. Smiling, they decided to take the pie with them on their trip – After all, it was a strong magical food. Moreover, it would help them feel closer to mum well they were away.**

 

####  **Walking out of their room, they went to talk to mum.**

 

####  **‘Hey… mum… Could you please tell me how to get out of the ruins? I really want to go back to the surface.’ Frisk explained through signs, shifting back and forth.**

 

####  **Toriel just abruptly stood, “Excuse me my child, but I must take care of something.”**

 

####  **Toriel left, walking fast into the basement, heading toward the ruin door. Frisk followed quickly after, not missing a step.**

####  **It did not take them long to get to the door.**

 

####  **The aura around the door was dark; it almost made you not want to pass through it. Who would after all, when they had that warm place to stay only a few yards away. Butterscotch-Cinnamon pie on the table… However, curiosity have never let Frisk stay, they wanted to know everything they could about the monsters.**

 

####  **‘Including just what their dust looks like when they die, is it different colours? Does their clothing leave as well? Just how much damage can you inflict before they disappear.’ Came the wicked voice, speaking in Frisk’s ear.**

Every monster was disturbed by the way the ‘Thought Whisper’ was saying such things. The idea of anyone killing someone just to find these things out was just unfamiliar to monsters. They were made of ‘Love and Magic’ and could not comprehend such things. Especially if they were born after the war.

“That’s just sick…” Undyne growled under her breath.

“I AM SURE THAT THEY COULD BE GOOD IF THEY JUST TRIED. PERHAPS ALL THEY NEED IS SOMEONE TO GIVE THEM A CHANCE.” Papyrus theorized innocently.

Blood, dust, decapitation.

“i don’t think so paps. i really don’t think so…” Sans spoke in a low voice, but did not turn away from the screen.

Papyrus looked at his brother in shock, “MAYBE THAT IS PART OF WHY THEY BECAME THAT WAY. YOU DO NOT KNOW UNTIL YOU TRY. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO CHANGE. AFTER ALL, WHO WOULD TURN DOWN THE OFFER TO BECOME MY FRIEND.”

“heh, no one that is smart enough to know what they’d be missing pap.” Sans said, smiling internally, but at the same time crying. His brother really was the coolest, most forgiving person. Even though it cost Sans more than a little bit of pain.

####  **“I will not let another innocent child past me, only for them to face their deaths. If you want to get past me, you will have to prove your strength!” Toriel spoke, the moment that they met in front of the door.**

 

####  **“I refuse to fight you.” Frisk signed, but with no hesitation.**

 

####  **The battle begun, Frisk’s soul came out of their body, a deep dark red, with specks of black around the edges.**

“Frisk’s soul looks different.” Asgore stated, looking closely.

“T-that might be t-the e-effect of the T-thought Whisperer…” Alphys replied, her mind running through several different theories before landing on that one, “Th-there isn’t a l-lot of things that c-can effect a s-soul but… S-someone influencing w-with such d-dark thoughts… That w-would probably do it….”

They were all worried about their little human. Never mind the fact that they were so confused. It did not make sense, because Frisk said that it didn’t happen to them. So where was it happening? Did Frisk just forget?

####  **The fight started, and Toriel fought with resolution.**

 

####  **Frisk however, had no problem dodging all that their mother threw at them. Muscle memory was in place, despite the fact that they were currently a soul. When it was Frisk’s turn, they choose Mercy** **à** **Spare, every time, without fail.**

 

####  **‘Just hit her once, she can take it. She wants you to prove yourself. It will not actually hurt her, so there is no risk. You know now strong mum is.’ The voice in Frisk’s mind whispered.**

 

####  **Frisk refused to give it the time of day.**

 

####  **This was their MOTHER.**

 

####  **It didn’t take all that long for Toriel to give up, seeing Frisk get hit by even one attack had her waver, but seeing Frisk refusing to so much as fight back? It had her giving up faster than the fight had even started.**

 

####  **‘NO! I WON’T ALLOW IT! I WON’T!’**

 

####  **Suddenly, Frisk’s arm lashed out, hitting Toriel right on the neck. Their HP was gone the second that the hit made contact.**

 

####  **Not possible.**

 

####  **It**

 

####  **Wasn’t**

 

####  **Possible**

 

####  **“I… You… at my most vulnerable moment…To think I was worried you would not fit in out there…Ehehehehe! You really are no different than them!”**

 

####  **Toriel dropped to her knees, her dust spreading in the air not a moment later, and her heart shattering to pieces.**

Everyone was shocked; Frisk and Toriel had tears in their eyes. Toriel quickly grabbed Frisk from their Dunkle and hugged them close, needing the comfort after seeing that.

Undyne’s hands were shaking.

Mettaton was dramatically sobbing.

Asgore looked close to crying himself.

Alphys looked too shocked to actually do anything.

Papyrus did not even seem to understand what happened.

Sans was angry, furious, hurt. He had been hoping, G A S T E R had let him down again. This was a genocide run… Now he had to go through it all again. This time however, he got a new sight, as he had never seen Toriel be killed before. Just another thing to add to his nightmares… Because of that little demon brat.

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND.” Papyrus stated, looking around confused at everyone that was upset.

That almost got a grin from several people, namely Sans and Undyne. Sans was just happy his brother always remained so innocent, and was glad that he had saved Papyrus from so much hurt.

‘ _Damn, it’s no wonder I could never let this guy into the Royal Guard, what an innocent bonehead…_ ’ Undyne thought.

“Papyrus… The onscreen Frisk just … Killed Toriel.” Asgore took it upon himself to explain, knowing that most everyone was too emotional now to do so themselves. He had practice separating himself from his emotions after all.

 _“But why? I do not understand.”_ Papyrus asked, in an abnormally small voice.

Sans hated G A S T E R even more.

“it’s because of that thought whisperer i think paps. they are probably scared of monsters, and lashed out. they probably didn’t even mean it.” It was a lie, but Paps looked much happier with that explanation. No one had the heart to break Sans words on the matter.

“Shh… It’s okay my child… We know it isn’t you… It’s okay…” Toriel whispered into Frisk’s ear comfortingly, but tears were in her own eyes. It was not because Frisk had killed them, but because… Chara had. Chara, their daughter, the ‘Thought Whisperer’ had actually acted through Frisk to kill her.

Nevertheless, Toriel knew she needed to be strong in this moment.

It seemed to be silent enough, despite everyone’s emotionally racked state, for the screen to start moving again.

####  **Frisks eyes were wide in horrour, disbelief.**

 

####  **It was not possible.**

 

####  **It was flour, yeah flour…**

 

####  **That made sense…**

 

####  **Mum had just gone to get them some pie…**

 

####  **Because Frisk would not kill mum……..**

 

####  **Frisk hit their knees in front of the pile of dust, their hands shakily reaching out. They had to check, because it was flour. There was no other explanation.**

 

####  **It was grainy…**

 

####  **Brown…**

 

####  **Hot …**

 

####  **Tears rolled down Frisk’s face, finding the robes that mum wore in the pile before them. A broken chuckle escaped.**

 

####  **“He…hehe… This is not funny mum… come on its okay… I’ll stay here… we can eat pie…” Frisk spoke out using their actual voice, horse from disuse.**

 

####  **“Mum this isn’t funny.”**

 

####  **“M-mum…”**

 

####  **Please no.**

 

####  **Please.**

 

####  **“Mum please don’t leave me…”**

 

####  **‘It hurts right now, but really this is just a dream. All you need is to go to sleep, and all of those will disappear.’**

 

####  **“That makes sense… it’s a dream… of course it is… this would only happen in a nightmare… I’m so stupid … Everything finally makes sense.” Frisk said with a smile.**

Watching Frisk be tricked like that from such a monster was painful, but the emotions in the moment of denial were even more so. Screen-Frisk just could not believe that they could have done something like that.

No one could really blame the child.

Undyne wanted to punch that little worms face in.

Sans wanted to kill the little demon again and again. He had never actually known what Frisk went through, and he knew Frisk didn’t remember like him, so he’d thought there was no harm really… He was proven wrong. Sans was glad that Frisk could not remember, because the effect on them would have been far too great.

Damn G A S T E R. Damn him.

####  **They got up, walking to the house, practically running.**

 

####  **“Just sleep, I’ll just sleep, it’s a dream… I’ll sleep and then it will be over… Mum will be there… We’ll have snail pie.” Frisk said, sitting on the bed, tears running from their eyes still, said eyes were starting to change colour, becoming red.**

 

####  **‘That’s right Frisk, just sleep, it’ll be okay… Mum is just on the other side of that dream…’** **The voice spoke.**

 

####  **Frisk nodded, they knew that already.**

 

####  **They lay down, closed their eyes, and went to sleep in their warm bed. It was warm anyway, now it just felt cold. Everything felt cold, why did they feel cold? It was probably because mum left the magic cooler on again, sometimes she did that. After all, mum had fur, so she didn’t notice it like Frisk did. That was why, of course that was why.**

 

#### Geez, I need to stop being so stupid today **, Frisk thought with a smile, before going to sleep.**

 

####  **They did not wake up, as when Frisk’s eyes popped open a minute later, they were completely red. A sickening smile raced across Chara’s face, as they looked around, giggling. It had been too easy… Way too easy to get what they wanted. Chara had thought it would take them at least until Snowdin, but hey, they were not about to turn down the give me’s.**

Frisk, who had finally calmed enough to watch again, started crying the moment they saw their bodies eyes turn red. They knew what that meant, deep in their soul. They could not remember, but they _knew,_ and it was not going to be pretty.

A prediction that was spot on.

####  **Still giggling, Chara made her way to the knife drawn, pulling out a big one.**

 

####  **“Time to take care of some annoyances. I always hated Froggits; they can be the first to go.” Chara said as she exited the house and went into the ruins, her voice almost sing song level in happiness.**

 

####  **Taking care of annoyances was messy business.**

 

####  **The air filled with dust.**

 

####  **Chara’s LOVE was quickly increasing, and with it, her happiness.**

 

####  **“Stab a froggit in the heart, do dah, do dah, kill the froggit’s all day long, kill kill kill all day, kill kill all day, kill kill kill all night, come on join up in this song, kill the froggits day!~” Chara sang as she murdered her way through the ruins.**

 

####  **Dust surrounded her. The whole thing had only taken a few hours.**

 

####  **“Huh… Seems there is no one else to play with… How sad. Oh well, I’m sure there will be more fun playmates in Snowdin!” Chara said, skipping away back to the exit of the ruins.**

 

“That’s just sick… I WANT TO KILL THAT LITTLE FUCKER!” Undyne screamed, but did not know how to direct it. The singing had been the final straw, WHO DOES THAT? Apparently, little demons named Chara.

“Oh my child… How far you have fallen.” Asgore wept openly – Causing Undyne to calm herself down, she could not bring herself to cause them more stress than they were obviously already under.

Sans had always knew that the demon was sick, but the look of disgust on his face as the demon sang was no joke. That was just wrong… There were no words for it.

“I …. I don’t understand brother.” Papyrus said, watching the screen with a horrible mix of confusion and horrour, “W-why is Frisk killing people? The human is too nice… I don’t understand…”

Sans heart broke, but he sucked it up as he always did, “You see Pap, sometimes people are a little bit sick in the mind, they need help. This is one of those people. They are just sick Pappy; once they get help, it will be all better. They cannot help their actions. In addition, it is not Frisk any more Paps, it is the ‘Thought Whisperer’ who took over Frisk’s body. They have it completely now.”

Papyrus looked more understanding now, sad, but understanding.

“Damn you Gaster, damn you.” Sans muttered under his breath, “My brother does not need to see this, just… Damn you.”

“I’m… Sorry… I’m… so… weak.” Frisk gasped out between sobs.

“No my child, you are not weak.” Toriel said firmly, tears still running from her own eyes, “We all know that it isn’t your fault.”

“B-but I killed mum… I was too weak to… resist them…” Frisk sobbed out, trying to calm themselves down, but failing at every turn.

“we know it wasn’t you kiddo, you’re strong for even coming that close to resisting them.”\

“HUMAN! I GREATELY ADMIRE YOUR STRENGTH IN THE FACE OF YOUR ENEMIES! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HATE TO ADMIT THAT, IT MAY BE SLIGHTLY POSSIBLE THAT, I COULDN’T HAVE FACED SOMETHING LIKE THAT ON MY OWN.”

“You nerd, we all know you aren’t capable of something like that.”

“W-we know y-you are a g-good person Frisk. Y-you’ve done s-so much for us.”

“Darling, don’t be so down! Dry those tears! ~”

The reassurances filled Frisk, and everyone else, with D E T E R M I N A T I O N. None of them would allow an alternate version of themselves effect their relationship in this moment. After all, it wasn’t like anyone thus far had any memories of actually living this life – At least, that’s what the majority thought. Sans on the other hand… He had to live with the effects of this everyday. Somehow though, he found himself the slightest bit D E T E R M I N E D for the first time in a very long time. He had a great family, didn’t he.


	3. Chapter 3

Everyone is still gathered around the screen, which seemed to be giving them a break to gather their thoughts. They were all rattled by what they had seen. Chara, previously only whispering horrible thoughts to Frisk, had taken over Frisk's body and went on to murder all the monsters that lived in the ruins. It was horrifying to note that Chara did not even seem done. They had every intention to continue their crusade when they went through the door to Snowdin.

"I, I AM NOT SURE THAT I WANT TO CONTINUE TO SEE THIS. IT SEEMS TO BE UPSETTING EVERYONE." Papyrus uttered, looking at everyone with a worried expression. It was clear that everyone was upset with what they had seen.

"it is not likely going to be that easy pap. the void brought us here for a reason. apparently until you ' D' me, well, i don't think we will be going anywhere." Sans stated in a matter of fact tone. He kne R, there was no chance the man would let them go before he got what he wanted, and he always got what he wanted.

"How?" Asgore growled, losing a bit of his calm, "How is this possible? How does this hurt help us understand you?"

"how should i know, it wasn't my plan. my plans are always much more _humerus_." Sans muttered, before closing his eye sockets as if to rest.

That avoidance of the issue bugged everyone. Especially Undyne, who seemed like she was a moment away from hitting the dense skeleton across the room. It wasn't something she was capable of, not because she didn't want to, but because she _knew_ the only thing it would accomplish is more people getting upset.

"My child, are you feeling up to continuing now?" Toriel whispered to Frisk, who had stopped sobbing and was just dealing with a bad case of the hiccups.

Frisk nodded, and the screen started back up promptly.

**Chara walked through the ruins and opened the door. Immediately on the other side, there was Flowey the Flower. A grimace crossed Chara's face as they walked out to meet with it.**

**"Wowey! I was not expecting you to be such a monster Frisk. You cannot really be human, in fact; you are empty inside. Just like me. Actually, you are Chara, are you not? I thought it might be possible but… I never thought Frisk would give into you. I guess that we are still inseparable, after all these years. Listen, I have a plan to become all-powerful. Even more powerful than you and your stolen soul." Flowey's expression changed from innocent to evil in a split second, "Let's destroy everything in this wretched world. Everyone, everything in these worthless memories. Let's turn 'em all to dust."**

**A derange laugh escaped Chara.**

**Flowey looked worried for a moment.**

**"Y-you think I actually give a shit about you anymore! Hahaha! You really are funny Asriel. We aren't friends anymore, I only ever used you. That was all there ever was to it! Hahaha~! I can't believe you ever thought it was more!" Chara sang out in-between deranged laughter.**

**Flowey just stared, almost hurt, but he could never hurt anymore. He didn't have a soul after all, just the echoes of feelings he had once had.**

**There were no more words on either side, Flowey just scampered away.**

"What has become of our Children…?" Asgore muttered his head in his hands. He really could not do anything right. His children had all become psychopaths, he killed children, Tori would not even look at him… He did not deserve her, and he never deserved them.

Toriel was actually sympathetic for once, and gave Asgore's hand a small, reassuring touch.

She would never enter a relationship with him again, but she did still care for the idiot.

**Humming under their breath, Chara walked into Snowdin, relishing in the chill that she felt. The long, dark brown trees around her hide Sans from view, but Chara knew they were watching. They had always watched Frisk after all. Followed them, protected them if it seemed like they would not be able to handle it.**

**They made sure that their knife was accurately hidden away, before hitting the fenced area.**

**Sans quickly followed behind the human, " N, Don't you know how to greet a new pal?" Sans was purposefully making their voice sound just on the side of dangerous, "Turn around and shake my hand."**

"You are acting really spooky there Sans, prescribing to the human stereotype?" Toriel teased the skeleton.

Sans fought a blush and looked away, damn that woman's sense of humour. Really, she killed him every time.

The serious and tense atmosphere was breathable again.

"You're following them pretty closely, why?" Undyne said, watching as Sans crept around in the shadows of the screen, keeping close to the human, well still staying far enough away that the human couldn't tell.

Sans scratched his skull sheepishly, "well, Tori asked me to watch over any human that crossed over the barrier to make sure that they don't get hurt. So… i promised i would. i am probably trying my hardest to fulfill that promise, and still make sure that my brother gets what they want to be happy. not an easy mix to handle. _but i'm hard as bones, so i can take it._ "

Toriel looked at Sans, thankful.

She had never assumed that he had actually tied to keep up with their promise to such an extent. Hearing that it mattered to them so much, that they remembered it, really touched her. Never mind the fact that Sans was not the type to hurt innocent children, like her idiotic ex-husband. That always helped her opinions of someone.

**Chara turned around slowly, holding her hand out, her eyes wide, allowing the colour to sink in.**

**Sans almost flinched backward, but caught himself. Holding out a hand, which he'd put a little whoopee cushion on.**

**Chara kept expressionless as the sound erupted from their combined hands.**

**Frisk had giggled.**

**Sans was now on edge.**

"Bonehead, you look really jumpy here. I don't think I've ever seen you that nervous, why? Could you sense something off, do you think?" Undyne questioned, studying the screen.

Sans thought over how to answer a question like that, "yeah… i am really good at sensing LOVE in people, so i'm probably on edge because i can feel an echo of it."

It was reasonable enough. There were several monsters that had such an ability – These included most of the monsters in the room. Well, other than Alphys, but she was smarter than most of them combined so, she got a break.

**He would not allow himself to show it though, "hehehe… the old whoopee cushion in the hard trick. it's ALWAYS funny. that's your queue to laugh, or uh, to emote at all…?"**

**'Come on Frisk, you have me worried…' Sans thought, subtly observing every twitch the face before him made.**

**"okay, that's fine. everyone has their own sense of humour. i'm sans, sans the skeleton. i'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. however, y'know … i do not actually care about capturing anybody. now my brother, papyrus … he is a human-hunting FANATIC hey, actually, i think that's him over there. i have an idea, go through this gate thingy. yeah, go right through, my bro made the bars to wide to stop anyone. quick, behind that conveniently shaped lamp."**

**Unlike how Frisk would have done, the little human stayed right where they were, not bothering with the lamp.**

**"uh, okay, i guess you don't have to."**

"I can't believe you tried to hide the human." Undyne muttered, glaring at Sans.

Sans just glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, placing his arms behind his head, "frisk is innocent, they don't deserve to get captured and hauled off to the king for execution. even if this time it's the 'thought whisper' there was no way for me to know that. i did the right thing, morally anyway."

"Maybe it was the most moral thing, but that doesn't make it the RIGHT thing." Undyne gritted out with a glare, "Sure, they're a kid, they haven't done anything wrong, but what about all the monster children who were punished for things the humans did, don't they deserve to be happy. One for the happiness of so many others, shouldn't that be worth it? It is worth it, whether you agree or not."

Asgore agreed, after all it was his decree. Sure, he could have done the whole thing better, SHOULD have even. He was idiotic for doing it the way he had, but one person, in the face of all his people? Worth it.

Toriel disagreed so heavily she could not even force words to come from her mouth, just glaring at Undyne with fire in her eyes.

"i care about very few things undyne, and the few things i care about, i'd trade the whole world for. don't try to tell me that if the one person required was alphys you would have agreed, because you would be lying." Sans logically explained, before any farther arguments on the matter could come up.

**"SAN'S HAVE YOU FOUND A HUMAN YET?"**

**"yeah."**

**"REALLY! WOWIE! GUESS THAT IS SETTLED! "Papyrus just turned around and walked away after that.**

**"that worked out, huh?"**

**Chara just stared at Sans for a moment, wondering how he put up with such an idiotic brother. Sans just went behind his stand, pretty lost in thought, worried about Frisk. He would have to make sure to watch them more closely than usual this time around. Something did not seem right…**

**Chara seemed more than happy to just go about her day after that. Walking in the direction Papyrus had taken off from.**

**Just before Chara could leave, Sans interrupted.**

**"well, i'll be straight forward with you. my brother would really like to try out his puzzles on a human, so it'd be really helpful of you if you, y'know, if you felt like it."**

"SANS! IT IS SO NICE OF YOU TO BE THINKING OF MY FEELINGS LIKE THAT. I AM SURE THAT THE HUMAN WOULD HAVE LOVED THE PUZZLES ANYWAY THOUGH, AFTER ALL! THEY WERE MADE BY ME, PAPYRUS!"

Sans just smiled painfully, already remembering Chara's interactions with Papyrus' puzzles. It had always hurt Papyrus' feelings, being ignored like that. Sans always wanted to tear anyone a new asshole when they hurt his brother like that, "your right, i'm sure that the human will feel that way, if they are smart enough to even be a quarter of how amazing you are, they will love your puzzles."

Everyone in the room smiled at the skeleton brothers. It had been a long time since they had seen such sincere and emotional moments for any length of time between the two.

They all knew that the brothers had been amazingly close, but they seemed to be drifting apart lately. It was good to see such bridges being mended.

**Sans left after that, going in the opposite direction of the human.**

**Chara just shrugged their shoulders. A few puzzles were no skin off their back. They giggled their deranged laugh for a moment at their own little pun. Knowing that Sans was not around anymore, they found no issue with killing all the little SnowDrakes that they crossed path with.**

**"Hehaha… Monsters in Snowdin's dust matches really well with the colour of the snow! How beautiful!" Chara said, moving along, idly sticking their knife through the head of several monsters. They seemed to be mostly SnowDrake, which was boring to say the least. Still, they needed to get their LOVE up.**

Of all the monsters, the SnowDrakes were the ones that Sans liked the most. Really, it was not a surprise to anyone that had spoken to both Sans and a SnowDrake. The thing was, Sans and the Drakes traded jokes regularly. Seeing them be killed made everyone feel bad for the poor creatures, but it hit Sans harder than the rest. Hell, Sans even knew the name of each individual SnowDrake.

"This sick fuck…" Undyne muttered under her breath, for the millionth time.

**After killing all the monsters in the area, the whole place filling with dust, Chara continued on to meet up with Papyrus.**

**"SO SANS! WHEN IS THE HUMAN SHOWING UP? I WANT TO LOOK MY SUNDAY BEST, OR AT LEAST MY TUESDAY PRETTY-GOOD." Papyrus declared, striking a dramatic pose.**

**"don't you only have on outfit?" Sans said with a smile forming, making his always-smiling mouth seem wider.**

**"YEAH, BUT I COULD STYLE MY HAIR!"**

**"oh, right. good idea. say, isn't that the human over there?"**

**"A ROCK? WHY ARE YOU HAVING ME LOOK AT A ROCK?"**

**"uh, what's that in front of the rock?"**

**"A HUMAN?! HUMAN, PREPARE YOURSELF FOR HIGHJINX, LOWJINX, DANGERS, PUZZLES, CAPERS, JAPERS, BEING CAPTURED, AND OTHER SORTS OF FUN ACTIVITIES. REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED, IF YOU DARE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!~" With that, Papyrus hurried off, his laugh fading in the distance.**

"Geez Papyrus, why didn't you just take them into custody right then…? It would have saved everyone so much time." Undyne stated with a matter of fact tone, looking at the taller skeleton.

"I THOUGHT THE HUMAN WOULD ENJOY SOME PUZZLES, AFTER WHICH I WOULD CAPTURE THEM AND PUT THEM INTO THE GARAGE – I MEAN JAIL!" Papyrus said it like it was the single best idea anyone had ever had, pride nearly radiating off him.

**Chara could feel her fist clench, this stupid bonehead skeleton… She could not wait to get him out of the way. If anyone could wake Frisk up, it would be Papyrus. She needed to work fast.**

**"… and you don't even bat an eye, huh?" Sans mentioned, narrowly looking at Chara.**

**"Do you know something, Sans?" Chara said, grinning wide and unashamed.**

**Sans went back to his normal stance, "All I know is that there is a sweet old lady out there that cares about you."**

**"Ha… Hehe… HAHAHA! Now that one was funny!" Chara said, before going on her way to the next station. Leaving Sans in the background.**

Toriel once more had tears in her eyes, her child hated her – As if killing their mother was not bad enough, but they had to laugh about it?

Sans was so good though, he was suspicious, but he still wasn't doing anything to hurt Chara. He knew that they weren't what they seemed, but Sans didn't waver from the promise he'd made to Toriel. True dedication, but Toriel was not sure how to feel about it.

At what point did her child actually deserve to not be protected.

Frisk tugged at their mothers sleeve for attention, signing to them, 'Dunkle takes his promises very seriously. That's because he really cares, right?'

Toriel nodded, rubbing Frisk's head in a soothing motion, "Thank you my child, I will keep that in mind."

**Doggo was sitting in his station, Chara knew this after watching Frisk's whole pacifist run. Chara snuck behind the half blind dogs station and grinned, sticking her knife through the paper thin box, right into Doggo's back, "W-what…? e…"**

**Doggo was dust.**

"THAT EVIL DEMON! IF I COULD GO THROUGH THE SCREEN I'D SUPLEX THEM SO HARD THAT THEIR HEAD WOULD FLY STRAIGHT OFF! WHO DOES THAT?" Undyne raged, unable to help herself.

Doggo was her underling.

Undyne had kept them in Snowdin because nothing really happened there, they were disabled, but still do determined to help save the Underground… Undyne could not refuse their request to stay on the guard. Not when despite their disability they were still so strong.

Besides, she could relate.

Thinking it over, Undyne allowed her finger to gently touch her patched over eye, or at least, what was left of it.

"U-undyne I'm s-sure we all agree w-with you after-r seeing that… b-but maybe you sho-o-ould calm down a little bit. Y-you'll scare F-Frisk…" Alphys muttered in her usual shy nature.

"UNDYNE THE HUMAN DOESN'T UNDERSTAND! THEY ARE JUST SCARED AND MIND SICK. YOU CANNOT BLAME THEM." Papyrus announced, almost frowning at his friend.

Undyne almost wanted to refute this, but she did not have the heart when it came to Papyrus' innocence. Besides, with the way Sans was glaring at her, she almost felt a shiver come down her spine. No one was stronger than an older sibling, that was just the way of the world.

**There was a snowman, a talking Snowman.**

**"Heh! Are you some kind of monster?"**

**"Mhmm, I can't move myself, so I was hoping that you would take a part of me with you on your trip!" The snowman said in a cheery voice.**

**"Hehe!~ Sure." Chara walked right up to the snowman, and tore chunks out of it, why not? Magical items like those heal you~ After she had gotten several chunks, she grinned at the frightened snowman, before mashing it into pieces, scattering it's remains all around the little area that it had once called its own.**

**Walking away, Chara munched on the snow, "Oh wow, what a good choice on my part. He tastes wonderful!"**

**Still munching on the snow, Chara met up with Sans and Papyrus at some sort of puzzle. Dropping the remains of that particular globe of snow, she started to pay mind to what they were saying.**

"Destroying someone's dream to get to the other side… That's just too horrible darling…" Mettaton muttered under his breath, watching what Chara had just done with a growing horrour. Everything they had done so far was horrible, and Chara just kept getting worse, as it that was even possible.

**"YOU'RE SO LAZY SANS! YOU SLEPT ALL NIGHT!"**

**"uh, i think that's called sleeping bro."**

**"EXCUSES. EXCUSES!" Papyrus chided, before they both turned to face the newly entered human.**

**"LOOK, THE HUMAN HAS ARIVED! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU, MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED PUZZLES. QUITE SHOCKING!" Before Papyrus could finish his little run through, Chara just walked across the puzzle field.**

**Papyrus stared at the human who was standing right in the middle of the puzzle, "I SEE, YOU MUST BE HAVING CULTURE SHOCK. YOU SEE, WHERE I COME FROM, IT IS A LOVING TRADITION TO SUFFER THROUGH HORRIBLE PUZZLES FOR NO REASON. SO IF YOU COULD JUST WALK BACK TO THE START…"**

**Papyrus had sweat gathering at the side of his head, tears close to gathering in his eyes, "Why couldn't we get the human that likes puzzles…"**

**Upset, Papyrus walked away.**

Everyone was angry.

Hurting Papyrus like that… It was not easy; Papyrus was a tough cookie when it came down to it.

Still, he was like the baby of them all, even more than Frisk was. Sure, everyone knew that Sans was over protective of Papyrus, but everyone else was as well.

"How dare that demon treat my friend like that." Undyne gritted out, her teeth making unhealthy sounds.

Alphys looked like she wished she could help screen-Papyrus, but didn't know how.

Papyrus himself was confused, why didn't the human like his puzzles? Sure, they were not always the hardest but they were fun… Right? The taller skeleton brother turned to the shorter one, "Sans… Why don't they like my puzzles? I put a lot of work into them… I don't understand."

Sans looked helpless at this point, how could he possibly come up with a way to explain this and not hurt his brothers feelings farther?

"Papyrus, Sans has told you before that the human here is mentally ill. They probably don't find joy in anything other than being bad. It is not your fault. It's the child's parents fault for not raising the child with the love they needed and deserved." Toriel said, both comforting, and self-harming at the same time.

Sans was thankful.

Reaching over, Sans knocked Papyrus on the head for the first time in what seemed like forever, "see bro? anyone who knows you loves your puzzles."

Everyone nodded along and gave affirmative noises, Frisks had almost seemed like it would come straight off their shoulders if they nodded any harder.

"I SEE, THAN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL DESIGN A NEW PUZZLE FOR ALL OF US WHEN WE GET HOME!" As he said this, he already went into planning mode.

**Sans almost glared at Frisk, or who he thought was Frisk, "it would make my brother happy if you played along."**

**"Ha! I do not really care about that. Besides, he does not really seem very upset. He was yelling his idiotic head off like usual." Chara teased horribly, tilting their head 'innocently' to the side as they looked at Sans.**

**'What the hell happened to you kid…' Sans thought, before walking off, having trouble controlling his emotions when it come to someone treating his brother that way.**

**All the dog warriors were quickly falling to Chara's knife, along with anything else that came into her path.**

**That little monster that bragged about his hat, well Chara took it's hat before killing it off. Sadly, the hat itself seemed to have been a part of the monster, so it turned to dust as well. Oh well, it was dead anyway! Not like it cared anymore.**

**The dog couple quickly followed after, the wife swore to get even when Chara killed the husband, but Chara just jumped on her back and forced her to fall into her husband's dust, "You wanted to be together forever right? Do not worry, your dust will mingle! Aren't I so nice~"**

"AHH! HOW COULD THEY DO THAT TO SUCH AN ADORABLE COUPLE! I MEAN REALLY –" Alphys ranted, before noticing that everyone was looking at her, and she slide down her seat in embarrassment. She really got carried away huh?

' _Wow, I really am trash, huh_?' Alphys thought to themselves, blushing harder than they had ever thought possible.

Before Alphys could think of anything else to call herself, she felt something touch her cheek. Looking over, it was Undyne's hand. Alphys had not thought they could blush harder, but they did. There was practically steam coming out of her ears.

"I couldn't have said it better myself Alphie~" After which, Undyne reached down and kissed her girlfriend on the cheek.

The sight of the couple helped break from the horrour the screen had been putting them through, but of course, it did not last long. would not allow them to bask in the happy moments, when farthe was right around the corner.

**It did not take that much longer until Chara met the skeleton bro's again, this time at Alphys' puzzle. This time Papyrus did not even get to speak before Chara started to walk across the grey puzzle board.**

**"BROTHER! WHY ISN'T THE HUMAN LETTING ME EXPLAIN THE PUZZLE? I WANT TO THREATEN THEM AND BAFFLE THEM WITH DANGEROUS JAPES!"**

**"well, maybe they don't like japes." Sans said, in some mock way of comforting his brother.**

**"EVERYONE LOVES JAPES!"**

**"ahhh, but undyne hates puzzles, right?" Sans mentioned, trying his hardest not to glare at the human.**

**"SHE HATES PUZZLES, BUT SHE LOVES JAPES."**

**"oh, that makes sense." At least his little brother seemed off the thought of the human snubbing him.**

**"HUMAN, WHAT DO YOU THINK? PUZZLES OR JAPES?" Chara didn't even bother with a response to the soon to be dead skeleton, "…. THIS IS USUALLY THE PART WERE YOU EITHER AGREE OR DISAGREE, AND DEPENDING ON YOUR ANSWER WE SAY SOMETHING GREAT IN RESPONSE."**

**Papyrus was hoping to teach the little human a lesson with this, but he seemed almost frustrated. He dropped a puzzle, before going on his way.**

**Chara did not learn it.**

**Killing Greater Dog was easy; the big armour dog didn't even try to fight back. Every time Chara hurt it, well, it just got up and tried to play with them again, despite the pain it was in. It made wounded noises, but Chara didn't let that last long, just turning him to dust a moment later.**

"Of all the monsters, the adorable Greater Dog didn't deserve that." Mettaton said, looking frazzled for once in his life.

'Heh, cheep coming from the person that hurt Nabstablook so much,' Sans could not help but think in response, wanting to glare at the calculatour, but was unable to bring himself to. It would upset Paps, and he was going through enough already.

**Eventually Chara came up on the bridge, and said something that would have hurt, if Chara were actually Frisk. Chara wasn't Frisk, so the fact that they didn't seem to be making friends with Papyrus, went right through them. They nearly chuckled at their joke pun. Apparently Papyrus would play puzzles with Undyne, oh well, that just made it easier for them.**

**They started to walk by after getting off the bridge, "Hey kiddo listen for a second. It seems like you will be fighting my brother soon, so… Let me give you some advice. If you keep going the way you currently are, well…. You are going to hav time."**

**As Sans said this, his eyes became black holes of nothing, and he looked vastly more threatening than he ever had. Soon after, he disappeared like he was never even there.**

**"Hehehe… Papyrus going to hurt me? How stupid… That bonehead would never be powerful enough to even put a scratch on me." Chara chuckled out, "Sans must really be off his rocker."**

They had seen Sans angry for the first time during this whole thing.

He had been glaring at Chara when they first appeared.

This, this was different.

The look on Sans face when they said that Chara would have a bad time if they kept on that road, it was haunting. It was something you would expect to only see in nightmares.

Frisk, apparently agreed. The second that they heard that line, they whimpered softly and tears gathered in the corner of their eyes. Somewhere deep in their soul, they could feel it, the echoes of that line from across the resets. They knew of course, that Sans would not hurt them now… However, did that really matter when he'd hurt them before? Frisk frantically shook their head back and forth. No, they would not allow this screen to cause them to think about their Dunkle badly.

Sans watched Frisk's reaction with an internal frown, ' _I'm so sorry kiddo_ …'

"Heh! That's a lot of enthusiasm for you bonehead, did you need to take a nap afterward, Lazy Bones?" Undyne teased her friend; about internally she was rather impressed. She doubted that he could actually back that threat, but was impressed nonetheless.

Asgore was not surprised though, because this was his judge. As far as how strong Sans was, he did not really know, but Sans ability with sensing was the best, and that was something that came from being a strong monster. It would not surprise him at all if Sans could back that threat up and more.

"THANK YOU FOR YOUR FAITH IN ME, BROTHER! THIS HUMAN SEEMS TO LACK FAITH, BUT I AM SO GLAD YOU BELIEVE IN ME!" Papyrus said with dazzled, starry eye sockets. Sans could never refuse his brother after all.

"sure bro, i'll always have the faith in your ability. you're super cool like that. i'm sure you'll take down that human with no problem." Sans lifted his hand lazily, and gave a thumb up in Papyrus' direction.

Everyone knew though, that it was Sans who threatened with the bad time.

**After saying this, Chara walked into Snowdin. It was eerily quiet, their type of place! Chara walked into the shops and stuff, no one was there. Therefore, they took everything of value, including several hundred gold. There was a note there that read, 'Please don't hurt my family.'**

**It made Chara laugh.**

**It was a ghost town at this point, save for one person. MK, Kid, or Monster Kid, who was standing by the Christmas Tree. Chara walked over to him with a sweet smile, "Hey, everyone else is gone, why are you still here?"**

**"Well, all the adults went and hide somewhere, but I don't really understand why. I mean, they are so dumb! Don't they know that we have Undyne to protect us? She will beat up the bad guys." Kid seemed pretty determined on that point.**

Undyne was touched by how much of an impact she had made on Monster Kid, but it seemed that the impact caused him to place TOO much trust in her. It made a sad expression cross her face as she prayed, actually prayed, that Kid would not get hurt. They had seen enough monsters die on this screen today – Another one would just be too much.

**"Huh! I always knew adults were dumb. Of course she will protect us all." Chara said, fingering her knife. Really, they could just get rid of the problem now…**

**Why not wait though. It was not like the kid could actually present some sort of threat to them.**

**Skipping through the ghost town, they made their way over to where they would finally be killing Papyrus. A long time in coming, if you asked them. No one likes loud ass boneheads after all. As predicted, Papyrus was right there waiting for them, "HALT HUMAN!"**

Sans cringed.

Full body, complete and utter cringed.

He wrapped his arms around his lets and pulled them close up to his chin. It was a very defensive move, almost as if he was protecting himself from the outside world. Sans did not want to see his brother let killed, never again. Now he was forced to do it, because of someone's whim.

Because the people he considered family wanted to stick their noses into something they could NEVER understand.

Everyone looked worried. Papyrus facing off against Chara, no one else was around… It didn't look good. Seeing Papyrus die would be… Heart breaking for all of them.

**There was no HALT though; instead, Chara just took a step forward, a sickening grin forming on their face.**

**"HEY … STOP MOVING WELL I TALK TO YOU! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. FIRST, YOU ARE A FREAKING WEIRDO! NOT ONLY DO YOU NOT LIKE PUZZLES, BUT THE WAY THAT YOU SHAMBLE ABOUT FROM PLACE TO PLACE, THE WAY YOUR HANDS ARE ALWAYS COVERED IN DUSTY POWDER. IT FEELS … LIKE YOUR LIFE IS GOING DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH." Papyrus stated, in an enthusiastic, yet somehow sad way. Almost like, he was on the edge of pitying Chara.**

**Chara just glared at the bone head, more than ready to kill him – If only to shut his mouth.**

**"HOWEVER! I, PAPYRUS, SEE GREAT POTENTIAL WITHIN YOU! EVERYONE CAN BE A GREAT PERSON IF THEY TRY! AND ME, I HARDLY HAVE TO TRY AT ALL! NYWEH HEHEHEHEHE!"**

"Papyrus you really are just… Too kind." Toriel sobbed out, tears in her eyes and motioning to the TV. It was touching, incredibly. Seeing that even when Papyrus lived there, they had some sort of faith in her child. It brought some sort of hope to Toriel, as feeble as it seemed.

"I DO NOT UNDERSTAND, IT IS JUST WHAT ANYONE SHOULD DO. THEY ARE CLEARLY HAVING PROBLEMS! THE BEST WAY TO HELP SOMEONE WITH THEIR PROBLEMS IS TO BECOME THEIR FRIEND. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, LEARNED THAT LESSON FROM MY BROTHER AND FRISK!" Papyrus said in his indoor voice, curious and disbelieving of the fact that he'd done anything remarkable of praise on the screen.

"no way pap, you are so nice, no one can really stand up to that. you really are the nicest and coolest person i know." Sans praised.

Papyrus turned to Sans, still confused, "YOU ARE THE ONE THAT TAUGHT ME THAT LESSON, OF COURSE YOU WOULD DO IT TOO."

Sans laughed.

Laughed so hard he fell off his seat.

"god pap, i'm nowhere near that nice. no, i would not do what you're doing here. not after all they did… i'd be too angry. really i'm not the forgiving type of person." Sans finished, wiping a tear from his eye.

Papyrus nearly frowned, so Sans almost immediately got up and was ready to say he was kidding, or anything to make his brother feel better. However, he did not need to, "I BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO THE RIGHT THING, BROTHER."

 _Wow_ , Sans thought, _I really do not deserve such an amazing brother_.

**However, Chara just moved forward again, twisting their knife in their fingers, their eyes glowing with malicious intent.**

**"HEY! QUITE MOVING! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! HUMAN! I THINK YOU ARE IN NEED OF GUIDANCE! SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP YOU ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW! HOWEVER, WORRY NOT! I, PAPYRUS, WILL GLADLY BE YOUR FRIEND AND TUTOUR! I WILL TURN YOUR LIFE RIGHT AROUND!"**

**…But Chara didn't listen, and moved forward.**

**"I SEE YOU ARE APPROACHING. ARE YOU OFFERING A HUG OF ACCEPTANCE? WOWIE! MY LESSONS ARE ALREADY WORKING! I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!"**

"Nonononono…nono…Please no…" Sans muttered as he watched his brother, he had seen it before, forced himself to actually, but each time it hurt the same. As if he was the one to be stabbed, but a thousand times over.

The picture that Sans was making at the moment was too much. Much worse than what they had expected, granted they did not know what to expect. Normally Sans was stuck on one expression, lazy in all things, apathetic at best toward pretty much everything. He seemed… Broken. Sure, they had known something was wrong, but seeing some of the depth of the problem was a challenge they had not expected to exist.

Seeing Papyrus going to his most likely death with open arms was breaking for them as well.

**Papyrus opened his arms with a gentle grin, expecting.**

**Chara walked forward with a different type of grin.**

**They hugged, if only for a moment, but Chara pulled away soon after, and there was an even more sickening expression on her face. Before Papyrus could move, his head was decapitated form his body.**

"OH MY GOD THIS SICK LITTLE BITCH! OF ALL PEOPLE, OF ALL PEOPLE… PAPYRUS?" Undyne screamed, but afterwards nothing intelligent came, just screams of frustration and pure hot rage.

Alphys was sobbing into her girlfriends raging shoulder.

Mettaton was crying, sobbing, head in hands, but no tears. He was mechanical; he did not get that release of emotions, only dry whirling sobs. Papyrus, innocent Papyrus, the tall innocent skeleton that Mettaton loved, died right in front of him on that screen. Surely, it had not happened in their universe, but even just seeing it, seeing how it was done…

Toriel and Asgore did not cry, but their eyes were misted over. They didn't have right to cry, at least that was Toriel's opinion on the matter. They didn't get to, because it was their child that caused this. In some ways, that made it their fault.

Frisk was shaking, twitching and moving in ways that seemed painful, horrible. It was almost some expression of inner agony. They didn't speak, they couldn't speak, what they had just seem took the words away from them. They wanted to say they were sorry, to say that they should have tried harder, but no words. Frustration, sadness, anger, it was all too clear on Frisk's face.

Frisk dug their fingers into their arms, using that pain to distract themselves from the emotional. It wasn't right, but it was what they had.

"My child… Don't do that." Toriel whispered in horrour, gently prying Frisk's hands away from the damage they were ripping into themselves, tears finally falling from her eyes.

Frisk shook their head back and forth unable to pull away, but trying to put their hands back to where they were. They couldn't handle it, it was their fault!

Sans was just staring.

Silent tears were streaming at from his wide-open eyes as he looked at those around him. He did not have words, he did not have shields, and he just had that blank stare. Really, what did it matter anyway, he had given up a long time ago, right? Seeing this stuff should not bother him anymore…

"S-sans…" Papyrus sobbed, pulling his brother close to him. "W-why did the h-human do it… I was only being n-nice…."

Sans opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

Sans looked to the people around him for help.

But nobody came.

They were too caught up in their own pain, their own shock, and really, it was pathetic huh. He knew they were amazing people, he knew that they wanted to help him… Yet here they were absorbed with their own emotions. Was it selfish of him to think it should be otherwise? It was normal right; he just needed to pull himself together for Papyrus, like he always did.

He did not need the people around them to comfort his brother, Sans had been doing it his whole life.

Hugging Papyrus even closer, Sans rubbed the very bottom of his brother's skull, a place of comfort that made Papyrus melt ever since they were baby bones, "Papyrus listen to me. That person on that screen, a thousand of them is not worth one of my amazing, smart, and cool little brother. What they did was sick, and they deserve to burn in hell for it. You are the only thing that truly matters to me in this world Papyrus, and I want you to always remember that."

Tears on Sans faced were dried, he was left with that normal face he made, lazy, but no pain was present, there seemed to be a burden around him, but no one could touch it.

Everyone had come close, but they fell short.

Sans was disappointed in himself for reacting so emotionally, he would not allow that to happen again.

"Wowie brother… You really know how to cheer me up… Thank you… I don't know what I would do without you." Papyrus muttered, slumping himself onto his brother as close as possible, Sans continuing to rub the back of his skull.

"God Paps…. It is the other way around… Trust me on that." Sans whispered, too softly for even Pap to hear.

No one saw the brother's interaction until it was over. They turned to look at Papyrus soon after getting over their shock, as if to make sure he was still there, but seeing him being comforted by Sans, they couldn't speak out their own reassurances. It wasn't their place.

**Chara was laughing as his body turned to dust, leaving just his head behind.**

**"W-WELL, THAT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED… BUT ST… STILL! I BELIEVE IN YOU. YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BETTER! EVEN IF YOU DO NOT THINK SO. I PROMISE…"**

**"HAHAHAHA! YOU'RE RIGHT I CAN DO BETTER!" Chara screamed in bliss, laughing as she did so, "I CAN TAKE CARE OF YOU RIGHT NOW!"**

"Don't look bro." Sans said, covering Papyrus' eye sockets with his own boney hand. He would not have Papyrus see this, just could not allow it.

He did not even care that it was a clue into the fact he knew what was going to happen.

**Chara walked over to the skull of the most cheery and lovingly innocent skeleton in existence, and lifted up her boot, "Get dunked on, you loud mouth, idiotic, pain in my ass."**

**She brought her boot down.**

**Dust.**

**Chara walked away, laughing.**

Silence, no one in the room could think of words, except Sans who was quietly shushing his sobbing brother, saying small, comforting things.

He could not wait to see himself vicariously give Chara hell in Judgment Hall.

**The screens perspective stayed on Papyrus' dust, unwaveringly. A distant voice jumped in:**

**"hey bro, i brought some spaghetti you made yesterday, thought we could eat it well we wait for the human to show up. i know that you wanted to face them yourself, but i really think that this is probably the safer way –"**

**Sans was close enough now to see the nothing that was there.**

**Nothing but dust, and red.**

**"P…PAPYRUS!" Sans screamed as he ran over, dropping the spaghetti as he went into full on sprint, "Nononononono… No way no…. Please no…"**

**Sans dropped to his knees in front of the dusty remains.**

**"Papyrus Papyrus Papyrus Papyrus Papyrus Papyrus…P….Pap…paypurus…. pa..please…PLEASE NO!"Sans screamed from the top of his lungs, eyes filling with tears, blue streaking down his face. All his features were twisted in some horrible contorted sort of agony.**

**"P-pap come on… I cannot live without you Pap… Brother…Bro… Please… I can't… Who will tell me to pick up my things…? Or make us spaghetti, or yell at me for being lazy…. Please pap no…"**

**"No…nonono…"**

**Sans couldn't stop muttering repeatedly, at this point he didn't even know what he was saying, he just wanted it to be over.**

**A shaking hand pulled something out of the dust.**

**Papyrus' scarf… The scarf that their mother had given Pap… The scarf that Pap never so much as let out of his sight.**

**Sans just brought it up to his face, and sobbed a broken mess into it.**

**"Why couldn't I have been quicker…? DAMMIT!DAMMITDAMMIT! WHY AM I SO USELESS…Why….I…? WHY?! Pap… pap does not deserve this… Why him… I don't…. I can't understand… I don't get it…"**

Seeing Sans so broken, there were no words.

It was clear that Sans had thought everything out on the screen. He had noticed something wasn't right with the human, and worked out a solution to try to keep Papyrus safe, but he was too slow. The small skeleton was just… Broken.

Looking into his sobbing eyes you could tell, there was a shattered look.

Everyone knew that Sans loved this brother, but the extent of which was in front of them. Just losing one person in his life destroyed him, and there were undoubtedly effects. The kind of effects that only the monster themselves could see.

There were many possible things that could happen to a broken monster. If they were weak in magic, some of them just dusted right there and then, 'Falling Down' however, if the monster is strong enough to handle the effects of the breaking, the repercussions aren't light. Usually it had to do with magic control, level, or the amount of HP the monster had.

Seeing Sans here, they did not know what to make of it.

They were thankful though, that they didn't have to watch Sans die as well.

The fact that such a thing was a reprieve for them was more than a little bit twisted.

**Suddenly, Chara was the main subject of the screen again, humming to herself and skipping around, just going about her day. She seemed to be on a straight path toward Waterfall, leaving behind Snowdin completely, probably at least until the next reset.**

"We need a break." Asgore stated, after about five minutes of silence.

No one uttered a thing, but they did not disagree either. The screen seemed to shut itself off as well, so no issues there.

The surroundings remained the same, a copy of what Toriel's, no, the Brothers … No, Undyne's house would have been like. Rather, a comforting mix of them all, now that they really looked closely at their surroundings. Everyone seemed about ready to keel over, so they went their separate ways to look for somewhere to… Relax somehow, if only for a moment.

Papyrus was too emotionally drained, thank the lord. He seemed to have fallen asleep before Sans had found Papyrus head on the screen. The small miracles of life. Sans wouldn't dare wake up his brother, once he had worn out his emotions. So, ignoring everyone else getting up, Sans just allowed himself to drift off as well, the comforting presents of his nearby brother stalling a nightmare or two. Never all of them, but enough to get by.


	4. Chapter 4

Watching what had happened last time had not been easy for anyone. They had all taken a break, intent on trying to swallow down the things that they had seen. Everyone had at least an hour of sleep, but no one had been able to get through it uninterrupted.

Nightmares.

Perhaps, the first step on their road t Sans was these horrible, heartbreaking nightmares. No one but Papyrus and Frisk knew about the nightmares, but now that they had at least some of th that they all wanted, even unknowingly, wasn't sure where to go from there.

He planned on showing the full genocide run, and he would. Nothing would change his mind on that, but seeing his sons twisted in grief and comforting one another, it was hard.

Sans wouldn't figure him the type, and he wasn't wrong. both loved, and was completely and utterly emotionless toward his sons. Most of the time he felt nothing, but looking at them now, sleeping on the 'couch' together, wrapped around each other and clutching at one another like they were each other's most important person, felt his heart clench.

He would go through with it though.

In the end it would wind up better than before.

Some people were starting to come down, unable to take the nightmares or attempts to sleep any longer. There was of course, nothing to eat. In th such things were useless anyway. No matter what it looked like, or felt like, they were still in th D. It would not kill them, although it might feel uncomfortable when they finally got home. \

Undyne and Alphys came down first, swiftly followed by Frisk and Toriel, Mettaton and Asgore falling behind them at a much slower speed.

They were greeted by the site of the skelebro's cuddled up together. That, if nothing else, was a better break from the current situation than the naps they had all just taken.

"That's actually really fucking adorable. Too much though, it's actually hurting my teeth, I can feel them rotting in my mouth…" Undyne muttered, before whistling sharply to walk the two up.

Sans shot up, flinging a hand back toward the sound, causing Undyne to actually be pushed against the wall behind her, breath leaving her lungs, eyes flying wide.

Sans frantically looked around, clenching at Papyrus protectively, reflexively, as he searched the room for the threat to his brother. Realizing there wasn't one, and that his eye was starting to flare, Sans lowered his hand. Forcing himself to relax, he turned toward the stunned quiet room and rubbed the back of his skull, "Oops…"

"SANS! WHY IS UNDYNE AGAINST THE WALL LIKE THAT?" Papyrus asked, not having seen what happened, but quickly bouncing out of his sleep and into his normal energy in no time.

Sans just shrugged and played the whole thing off, "who knows, maybe she just likes leaning against walls like that."

"OH. THAT MAKES SENSE." Papyrus said, settling into his seat again, both him and Sans shifting to allow the others to find a place to sit among them.

They knew what they would have to do.

"What the absolute fuck…" Undyne muttered, but didn't mention it. She probably deserved that, the wall slam. After all, Sans had just saw his brother die… The fact that Sans had the power to slam her into the wall like that wasn't something she'd known before. However, Papyrus himself was actually a very strong monster – So it wasn't that surprising that his brother would have even a fraction of that power.

No one mentioned what had happened a moment ago.

Mostly because they could remember yesterday very well. They remembered everyone's reactions.

Especially Papyrus'

They didn't need any sort of conflict between the two brothers at the moment. Especially when they were depending on each other so much at the moment. Most of them felt a little bit guilty when they thought back on it. Papyrus had never been in worse shape, to the group's knowledge, yet they forced the emotionally shocked and horrified Sans to deal with it all by himself. They were horrible friends – At least they thought so.

A mistake that would NOT have a repeat this time.

The second everyone was _seated_ and comfortable, restarted the ' _screen'_ breaking their hope again, that it could be over.

**The little dweeb was there, Monster Kid. Standing right next to the place where Sans had made his little job stand. No one else was there, no one but him. A frown came over their face, but Chara knew better than to let it affect her too heavily. They would get more things to kill soon enough.**

**Should they kill the little dunce now, or later…?**

**"** **Yo! Are you sneaking out to see Undyne, too?" The little yellow monster asked innocently.**

**Chara just smiled, "Oh yeah, I'm definitely here to… See her. Should be interesting!"**

**"** **Awesome! I wanna be just like her when I grow up. Hey, don't tell my parents that I am here, okay?" Kid begged, before scampering off, tripping over himself.**

**Ehhh… They would just kill him later – Maybe after they made friends with Kid, which would make everything just that much better. It's not like they didn't have all the time in the world, considering their ability. So, they walked on, not bothering to go after Kid, he'd be following their path anyway. Then they could make, 'Friends' with him.**

"Why are they holding off on killing him? I'm grateful of course, I don't want to see the Kid die, but it doesn't make much sense. This monster hasn't paused in killing anyone before…" Undyne mused aloud.

"I doubt it is out of any good intentions." Toriel responded, almost bitterly. She could not help but blame herself for how this seemed to be going. It was made worse by the fact that she still loved Chara, despite what they were doing. It wasn't far, to have to deal with such horrible duality in this situation. How could she choose, should she choose? It was wrong all across the board.

"Tori…" Asgore muttered, reaching out a hand to place it on top of hers, as though to comfort her.

**They walk up to the grassy area that Undyne is patrolling, wondering what sort of differences they would be facing here. It made them excited, although they doubted Undyne would provide any sort of challenge, seeing how things changed because of their actions was interesting. Almost like a science project! Wouldn't Alphys be proud?**

**Stopping in the tall grass, they watched Undyne turn around and look toward where they were. Apparently they had made too much noise, because Undyne heard them and summoned a spear, stalking forward.**

**Chara froze, actually afraid for some reason.**

**The aura coming off of Undyne was different from the one that they had faced last time. Deadlier, sharper, honestly Chara didn't know how to explain it.**

**They needed more LOVE.**

"That little demon BETTER BE SCARED!" Undyne exclaimed in joy, pumping her first in the air, "I CAN'T WAIT TO WATCH MYSELF WHIP THIS BITCHES ASS!"

"Undyne please refrain from using too much fowl language, as despite the circumstances there is still my child in the room." Toriel mentioned, before looking downward. She didn't want to see someone actually fighting her child. Sure, some of the small monsters had tried, but the idea of watching one of her friends actually trying to kill her daughter… She wanted to put it off and pretend it would never happen.

But Undyne would have to.

The whole Underground was at stake, and she was Royal Guard.

**Of course, they had every intention of getting more, but now they knew that they needed It. Instinct was warring inside of them to the point it screamed.**

**"** **Hehehehe… At least it won't be boring," Chara muttered to themselves, a smirk running across their face.**

**"** **Yo! Did you see the way she was staring at you?!" An excited voice spoke from next to them, causing their head to swing over. They had forgotten about this annoyances existence for a moment. "That was awesome! I am so jealous She was just standing there waiting forever and then you just… Come on; let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!"**

**Before Chara could even get a word in, the little monster was running away, tripping over himself once again.**

**Chara shrugged and just went about their way, finally finding something to kill!**

"Damn, that little brat is just asking to get killed…" Undyne motioned toward the screen uselessly.

"I BELIEVE THAT THIS IS A SIGN THAT THE HUMAN IS GETTING BETTER. PERHAPS THEY WILL NOT KILL ANYONE AGAIN." Papyrus said, almost triumphantly. He was sure that the other him that had just died would be happy with such a thing. Maybe he'd actually been able to make some moral impact on them after all.

"pap… i don't think that's what happening here. please don't get ahead of yourself…" Sans warned, patting his brother on the skull lightly.

Papyrus really was a ray of sunshine… But Sans knew what happened, and knew that Chara wasn't settling there.

Papyrus was stubborn though, "I WILL KEEP YOUR WORDS IN MIND, BUT I STILL BELIEVE THAT THE HUMAN WILL DO THE RIGHT THING."

Sans just looked up at his brothers trusting face and practically melted, ' _Man… My brother is so cool_.'

**Their eyes gleamed in excitement as Aaron flexed his way next to them, looking for friendly competition, he didn't get it.**

**Chara moved quickly, dashing in before Aaron could make a move, and decided to take what mattered most to the monster. Pushing him down, Chara took their knife and dug it into the shoulder of Aaron, cutting tendons and bones, muscles and magic, separating all the hard work from the hard worker.**

**Chara had cut Aaron's arms off.**

"I … D-don't understand… K-killing mons-s-sters is one thing… B-but why do t-they do it in t-the w-worst possible w-way…?" Alphys gasped out, a hand over her mouth in horrour.

Undyne pulled her girlfriend close, gently forcing Alphys head onto her shoulder, wanting to comfort Alphys, but also secretly needed the closeness herself, "It's because they are sick Alphie… There is no other explanation… Their just sick and twisted."

**"** **So, you liked to flex huh? I thought I'd take it away from you; after all it's not a useful way to spend your time. You agree right?! You're glad I did it, RIGHT?!" Chara said, bouncing around in front of Aaron, as his arms turned to dust.**

**Aaron just stared at the dust that used to be his arms. He was speechless, unknowing of how to react, but tears gathered in his eyes.**

**"** **Awwwwh, this reaction is boring… I guess I could just reunite you with your arms if they matter that much." Chara said a pout on their wicked lips.**

**Aaron turned to face his attacker, almost desperate, no words, just a pleading whine escaped his mouth.**

**"** **Okay then, if you want them back just stand still!" Chara said, walking over toward Aaron again, still pouting in disappointment as they swung their knife, finishing Aaron off, the betrayal in his eyes feeding Chara's LOVE of violence, "Hehe… He looked so betrayed, but I only did what I said I would! His arms dust and his bodies dust are together now. Geez, the things I do for these ungrateful monsters…"**

"How does it get worse? The things she says… How did our child even learn these things…" Asgore said, watching the screen with a silent sort of sadness, steady and deep depression.

For once Sans felt the need to comfort the man using the best force in the world, logic!

"The chances are that the 'child' got messed up when they died. It's not normal to come back to life and take over another's body, right? It probably screwed up something in their head, legitimately. It isn't Tori's or your own fault." Sans was almost dismissive in tone, which would have been angering, if they didn't know that was just how he was.

"… Thanks Sans." Asgore said simply, mildly comforted. Especially for the fact that Sans bothered to attempt comforting them. Knowing Sans as well as he did, Asgore knew that the skeleton monster wasn't that big on things like that.

**Still pouting, Chara moved on to find their next opponent.**

**A few Washua and Moldsmal showed up, but they were boring enemies, not fun to kill at all. Chara wanted something interesting, the only thing really starving off their boredom as they killed off enemies was the fact that they were gaining LOVE to face Undyne.**

**_So many Moldsmal_ ** **, Chara absentmindedly noted as they dusted another one.**

**"** **Ohhh~ Waterfall monsters have a different dust as well! It's actually slightly blue!" Chara exclaimed, as if they actually cared about the discovery.**

"Why is the dust a different colour?" Undyne asked, although in the most sensitive tone possible.

"B-because o-of the difference in atmosphere a-and the m-most type o-of magic u-used in the a-area…" Alphys gave a simplified version of the explanation, "The m-magic saturates t-the area, c-changing the atm-m-mosphere s-so when a m-monster passes … It t-takes on the a-area's c-charact-teristics."

Undyne just nodded, but everyone suddenly felt much more informed. It wasn't common knowledge. It wasn't something monsters typically looked at and went, huh, would you look at that! It was too scared for that. Still, Alphys was a scientist.

Sans already knew.

He'd seen too much dust to have not noticed.

**It didn't take too long before there were no more monsters in the area.**

**A smirk graced their face when a spear suddenly embedded itself in the ground in front of them.**

**It seems as though their enemy had appeared! They ran along, dodging the spears with speed unnatural for a human to posses.**

**Of course, the game ended far too quickly, when that little bothersome shit got in the way. It made Undyne walk away, the presence of Monster Kid, but it made Chara squeeze the knife in their hand, ready to take a strike at Monster Kid.**

**They wanted their entertainment back!**

"LOOK! THE HUMAN IS HEISITATING TO ATTACK…" Papyrus ended, almost hopefully. Gazing toward his brother, hoping that there would be agreement from him.

Sans wouldn't let his brother feel the disappointment of that encouragement though, even if it would help him feel better momentarily, "look pap… i don't really think that kid is hesitating for anything good. it might just be using mk as a way to get to undyne when they fight her, or something like that… please don't get your hopes up pap…"

Sans practically begged his brother.

The shorter skeleton didn't want to see his brother broken like he had been the last day, when he watched himself die.

Papyrus seemed to notice that his brother needed something from him at this moment, and couldn't deny it, even if he didn't really know what it was. So, slowly, hesitantly, he nodded along to Sans' opinion.

**Everything about killing monsters other than warriors was getting boring.**

**Too easy**

**Chara literally had too much LOVE for it to be all that fun anymore. Right about now their LOVE was about nine, brining their HoPe to new levels that Chara hadn't experienced before. Frisk hadn't known what they were missing!**

**Reminded of their growing strength, Chara calmed down their want to completely annihilate Monster Kid.**

**It would be far more entertaining to do that in front of Undyne, instead!**

**"** **OH MY GOSH DID YOU SEE THAT? UNDYNE JUST TOUCHED ME! I am never washing my face again! Man, you are so unlucky. If you were standing just a little bit to the left, but do not worry! I'm sure we will see her again, and you can have your chance!" Monster Kid scurried along, Chara smirking after him.**

"M-maybe w-when all of this is o-over y-you could g-go see Monster K-kid… It s-seems like something th-h-hey would r-really like…" Alphys shyly suggested to her girlfriend, poking her fingers together.

Undyne gave a large grin, "Yeah! I think I'll do just that. The brat is pretty cute; he looks a bit nerdy too, like my amazing girlfriend."

It was said like she was stating the sky was blue. Undyne simply thought her girlfriend was amazing, and it was fact, something that everyone should agree with, something that should be obvious to everyone that they passed on the road.

**'** **_Yeah, it will be my lucky day when we see Undyne again you little brat, it just won't be yours._ ** **' Chara thought, skipping along the path again.**

**Shyren's appeared, and Chara was happy.**

**Shyren had actually tried to hide from them!**

**"** **Hehehehe, you can't hide from me. You monsters, you're all so stupid! That is why it's so easy to kill all of you! You never put up a fight." Chara said, advancing on the shivering enemy, banishing their knife, separating head from body.**

"Even the monsters that are hiding… Such a fabulous singer as well…" Mettaton commented, watching the screen in rabid attention. It was like watching a horror story right in front of you. Something that actually could have happened, but didn't… It was sickening, but it provided him a small sort of thrill…

He was learning something from this.

As horrible as it was to say, the lessons he learned in this would certainly help him make more riveting and entertaining TV. Maybe it was horrible of him to think that way, but if they had to watch this horrour show, wasn't getting as much out of it was possible something that they should be aiming for? Why waste the lessons that are put down in front of them.

Honestly, Mettaton was very interested in seeing where this would all go, not only for the whole Underground, but also just for himself in this Alternate Universe.

Would he die as well?

Would be protect the few things he actually held dear?

**Afterwards something happened that had Chara nearly going bat shit insane…**

**Oh**

**My**

**God**

**That annoying Kid was still around. Chara fought the urge to kill him right there and then, instead waiting for the sweet moment that they could kill him in front of Undyne.**

**"** **Hey! I guess you can't hold an umbrella either. If you're walking anyway, I guess I'll go with you, haha…" Monster kid followed after them as they walked, Chara careful not to start a conversation. They knew that this little monster would just go and on, that would make them unable to hold in the urge anymore.**

**Oh yeah! That ledge.**

**"** **Hey… You wanna see Undyne right? You can use my shoulders to get up."**

**Chara just nodded with a smile, climbing up on his shoulders.**

**Stamping on his head.**

"CAN'T THIS DEMON DO ANYTHING WITHOUT HURTING SOMEONE!?" Undyne roared, feeling protective of the kid that looked up to them so much.

That remained innocent, despite the current circumstance.

**"** **Ouch! You didn't have to be so rough…" Kid said, tears gathering in his eyes, but he forced them away. "Anyway, I'll find another way around. I'm good at that! See yah, hope you meet Undyne!"**

**Kid faded into the distance.**

**Chara burst into laughter, "HAHAHAHA! OH MY GOD HIS TEARS, HAHAHA! I AM SO GLAD I DID THAT, SO WORTH THE WAIT!"**

"Kid… is worth…. Ten thousand of…. Thought whisperer…." Frisk spoke out brokenly, tears flowing from their eyes as they watched their body do such horrible things to one of their best friends.

Sans grabbed the kid from off Toriel's lap, despite the silent rebuke from Toriel that he got for it, hugged Frisk close, but he didn't say anything, he just hugged them. There wasn't much to say, he just wanted to comfort Frisk. Words weren't really capable of that in this moment.

Toriel seemed to have a few though, special mom powers.

"My child, Kid is safe at home right now with his parents. He knows that you would never do anything like that, and he knows that he doesn't deserve treatment even close to this. Nothing like this will EVER happen to him." The words were strong and comforting, and Frisk allowed both them, and the warmth of their Duckles embrace, to lull them into a better emotionally stable place.

**Making their way into a dark set of rooms, Undyne showed up and attacked again. Chara had no problem dodging all the attacks, not bothering to give any attempt at violence back, their plan was too perfect to ruin for some momentary fun at Undyne's expense.**

"URGH! I WANT TO SEE MYSELF HIT THIS DAMN BRAT!" Undyne grit out between her unusually sharp teeth.

**The look on Undyne's face when they killed Kid in front of her…**

**It would simply be too perfect.**

**Eventually, Chara met a dead end and just jumped off. She knew that the bed of flowers below would cushion their fall, just as it had all those years ago.**

**Trash, ever where.**

**Well, at least they lost Undyne, which left an apathetic feeling. It was entertaining to fight against her, but Chara still wanted to go through with the plan…**

**Knowing Alphys made this situation all the more pathetic. The shy scientist came here to get human trash as if it was some sort of treasure. Those idiotic monsters didn't know anything… But Chara knew that this time it was different. Alphys was probably watching them from her cameras, maybe even crying! The dust that they left in their wake certainly would have upset Alphys.**

**God Chara hoped that the Monster had cried.**

**They were met with another enemy as they reached the end of the trash bucket. Mad dummy, which appeared so angry at them, they thought they might finally get a good enemy, someone challenging! Seeing as how the dummy couldn't be injured by physical attacks.**

**Instead they merged with their body because they were so overcome with anger; they tried to let Chara go.**

**They spared Chara.**

They all knew that this wouldn't end well.

Finally seeing a monster that fought their whole life to be happy, was always angry, but wanted one thing in life, and they finally got it…

But knowing it was going to be destroyed…

Mettaton in particular looked like he was about to cry. His cousin had finally gained what he wanted in life… Before he'd been thinking about using this experience as something to learn from, but now it just felt bitter. Something that Mettaton didn't want to swallow, didn't want to watch.

Everyone else had watched though, not a single person had turned away from the screen, no matter what was happening. At least for the most part. Sans had even watched his brother die! How weak would that make Mettaton, if he couldn't bring himself to watch his Cousin in his potential final moments?

Stealing himself, Mettaton watched, in horrified attention.

**"** **Hehe…heheheehe… HAHAHAHA! YOU THINK YOU CAN SPARE ME?! YOU THINK YOU'RE IN CONTROL?! You were never in control; you will never be in control… HEHEHE…" Chara said, moving forward toward the dummy, who was still drunk on happiness.**

**Chara ripped one of their button eyes out.**

"This….Bitch…" Mettaton warbled out, his voice falling him in his rage. No words other than that escaped either; there was nothing else that he could think of to properly verbalize his rage.

No one had seen Mettaton that angry before.

Mettaton was unsurprisingly pretty damn amazing at hiding his emotions. It was his job to do so, and he was actually pretty damn great at his job, no matter what other people thought. Anger wasn't something that they had seen outside of the robot/ghost playing a character.

It was creepy in a way.

**"** **H-hey… What are you doing? I'm finally corporal… This hurts me…" The Dummy said, powerless to actually do anything as Chara pulled their other button eye out.**

**The insane giggling from Chara never ended, the buttons turned to dust in their hand, proof of the fact that Dummy had indeed mixed with the corporal body he'd inhabited.**

**"** **S-STOP PULLING MY STUFFING OUT!" Dummy yelled, as Chara pulled all the white filling out from the holes in the dummies eyes, just letting it hit the floor. Before long, Dummy was nothing more than a sack, unable to talk, but still able to feel. Chara pulled their knife out.**

**They shredded the remains, their giggling finally ending as it turned completely to dust before them.**

"… I hope I get to see her die, painfully, preferably torturously…. Maybe even by my hand…" Mettaton said, staring at the screen with a familiar anger in his eye.

Something that Sans recognized as something he often felt toward that little demon himself.

Mettaton must have really cared about his family more than Sans thought. The care he showed, the disgust, the reactions he had… It actually helped Sans improve his opinion on that overgrown calculatour. It's hard not to like someone who cared so much about their family. It showed a kind of integrity that you couldn't help but like.

"i'm sure you'll be your wish at some point." Sans stated vaguely, thinking back internally to his time in Judgment Hall with the little demon, never mind the fact that Undyne was going to be facing her soon enough.

**The old turtle was still there.**

"Ha! That bad ass old man, Gerson! Everyone else is evacuating and he just sticks it out! That's my mentor!" Undyne cheers, pumping a fist into the air.

Actually, it didn't surprise Sans that the old man had stayed, he probably had his facts straight. The old man was safer there, and he knew it. There was a few times that Sans had talked to him during a geno-route, and the old man made it clear that he understood the 'rules' and so he knew that he couldn't be touched.

As long as he stayed where he was.

Moving with the rest of the evacuation meant that he was in danger. If he stayed in his 'shop area' he couldn't be touched. Logically, it made more sense for him not to move.

Sans didn't explain it though. He was sure he'd be forced too soon enough, and it's better to just put things like that off. Maybe the King could explain instead? After all, there is no way that Asgore didn't know at least in part, about the rules.

**Chara felt insulted, were they not enough of a threat to this pathetic old man?!**

**They talked to him, asking about the same things they had last time, "Do you believe in fate?"**

**"** **A long time ago, Asgore and I agreed that escaping would be pointless… I almost felt betrayed when he changed his mind. I always thought that going to the surface would have the humans killing us, now I know that it doesn't matter. Seeing as how there is a human down here that is killing us all. Ain't that right?" The old turtle said, almost sassy.**

Asgore looked a little bit guilty, "I wish I hadn't broken off my friendship with him… But I was very driven. I didn't want to be talked down. Perhaps now is the time to mend that fence… Before it's too late."

"He talks about you all the time. Says that he sees a lot of you in me… Whatever that means!" Undyne informed, "He's still in the same shop place, and he never actually left the Underground. He says that he is pretty sure that all of it will eventually turn south. Still! He talks about you all the time. Says that you are a huge NERD! Well, actually it was more like; he was calling you a huge softy…"

Toriel could kind of relate to wanting to stop Asgore, but their reasoning behind it was so different. Actually, Toriel hadn't ever actually thought about it like that, the idea that the humans would just restart the war and try to kill them all. Of course, it didn't happen that way, but the fact that it could have, and it wouldn't have even occurred to the majority of monsters, it wasn't right.

**Chara ground their teeth together, the audacity of this old man.**

**"** **Just who do you think you are old man? I'm going to kill you, I'm going to rip that lazy eye of yours right out of your skull before I dust you." Chara whispered menacingly.**

**The old man just chuckled, "I've lived too long to be afraid of something like you. Try it kiddo, I know you can't here. Knowledge like this is the only reason that I've survived this long."**

"What is he talking about?" Toriel asked, generally to everyone in the room.

Undyne didn't have an answer, but she did have a weird observation, "Why isn't the human attacking… They attacked pretty much everyone else. It doesn't make any sense."

"The rules that Gerson is speaking of here; they are the rules that were set down by the ancients. They were for back when Monsters had so much more power than humans, the humans needed some help. So they made this… Rule book for battles with Monsters against Humans." Asgore reluctantly explained.

"D-does Frisk e-experience this?" Alphys asked, but perhaps the wrong person.

Frisk jumped down from their place on Sans lap, and moved over to tap on Alphys shoulder, 'Yes, but me and the Thought Whisperer use two very different versions of the rules… I use the Mercy; but they use the Fight… It's hard to explain.' Their hands quickly jumping through the signs.

"There are a lot of different rules that were put forward. Some that the humans CAN'T break, and some that the monsters are compelled to follow – Despite the fact that they don't know of the existence of such things. Such as, I'm every single one of you allowed Frisk to always make the first move in battle? This is a rule, and with it comes the irresistible compulsion to obey…" Asgore continued, ignoring the interruption to his explanation previously, "We don't usually tell monsters for a few reasons. One, because we don't actually know all of the rules… Another reason is that monsters wouldn't like this fact, the fact that other people have so much control over how they act, that they are almost helpless in the face of the humans."

It was heavy stuff.

It permeated the atmosphere with a weird sense of dread, even talking about the rules.

No one could even think about any questions to ask, they were just too overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation that was just shown to them. The silence that followed caused the screen to start up again.

**He was talking about the way the world worked, Chara realized. The old man knew about turns, the rules, and things like that. It wasn't something most people paid mind too, especially if they weren't human. Only humans could actually SEE the way, the 'controls' but some monsters figured it out, the way things worked.**

**This monster was using it to his advantage, masterfully.**

**Chara wanted to attack him, but was stuck in the sea of shop dialogue and talking options.**

**Instead she just left, but not without a glare that could cook that old turtle right in his shell.**

"W-what kind of r-rule is b-b-being used here…" Alphys asked, having absorbed the information given and was now holding large scientific curiosity to know everything there was to know on the subject.

"Only humans can actually 'see' the rules. But our best guess is that there are several different options when it comes to interactions. Regular talking, combat, and shops, are the main examples. Shops are areas that don't allow the combat interaction to occur. Best guess is that Gerson is using that, and the human can't really do anything about it." Asgore theorized, stroking his face in thought.

**They raced forward, not paying any attention to their surroundings. If it moved, they stuck a knife into it.**

**"** **Hoi, I'm Tem – ee…"**

**Dust**

"I was so happy that someone got a good one over them… But now they are just so angry… Poor Temmie." Undyne looked genuinely regretful as she said that. Of course, she didn't know the reaction such anger would cause in the 'Thought Whisperer' but that wasn't any excuse now that she saw the affects.

**They eventually got into a dead end, forgetting completely about this particular meeting with Undyne. It got dark, and they looked behind them, only to be met with the site of a warrior complete with a full set of armour.**

**"** **Seven. Seven human souls, with that power, King Asgore will become a god. This power will make sure that Asgore can finally shatter the barrier. He will take the surface back from humanity! This is your only chance of redemption human, give up your soul, or I'll tear it from your body!" Undyne readied a spear, stepping toward. Chara's lips spread into a sickening grin, they flip their knife into a backward grip.**

"FINALLY! I GET TO STOP THEM FROM HURTING ANYONE ELSE!" Undyne cheered, but didn't move all that much, her girlfriend still resting her head comfortably on her shoulder. They needed that comfort for the situation.

Sans was watching the screen in rapt attention.

He didn't really know what happened in this first genocide route when it came to Undyne. Apparently she'd given the human a big run for their money. The fact was he never really knew that happened that day… It would be interesting to see. Of course, he didn't actually want to see his friend die… but he did hope that the little devil inside the human died a few times.

Sans could vaguely recall some loads during that time. If he got to see the human die, that would be more than alright with him.

Alphys could feel herself clenching internally with stress. She couldn't move… What if Undyne died?

Of course, the yellow monster knew that Undyne was strong, the amount of faith that she had in Undyne was extremely strong. Yet, she'd seen what the human had done thus far. It wasn't an excuse, but the human was very strong… Alphys didn't want to doubt Undyne, she was just worried.

Very worried.

**Monster Kid appeared in front of them before the clash could get underway.**

**"** **UNDYNE! I WILL HELP YOU FIGHT!"**

**Undyne immediately grabbed Kid by the face and dragged him away, just as Chara lunged toward Kid with intent to go forward with their plan.**

"Damn it!" Undyne raged, but was glad that she had gotten the kid out of that situation. It was far more important to protect life, than to take it – At least in this case.

**Immediately Chara started pouting, but they would get another chance, they knew that.**

**It didn't take long.**

**Kid was actually pretty skilled, to get away from Undyne so quickly. It was impressive, considering he fell over his own feet whenever he was simply running.**

"Oh no…" Toriel uttered, covering her mouth with her hand as she watched the Kid come back to Chara. Toriel could feel it crawling on her back; she knew that this time wasn't going to be like the last times.

All of them could feel it.

Just the general body language that the 'Thought Whisperer was using, it spoke of want for violence.

Toriel gently grasped her child and brought them close. They didn't need to see their friend die… and Toriel hoped with all her heart that it wasn't about to happen. She fought the urge to close her child's eyes, knowing that her determined child wouldn't allow it. Such knowledge didn't take away her protective instincts for her child though.

**"** **Yo. Undyne told me to stay away from you. She said that you hurt a lot of people, but, that's not true, right?! Why won't you answer me?" Chara was sick of the talking, sick of the waiting, and grinned, wide, "What's with that weird expression?"**

**Kid seemed to realize that something was wrong at this point.**

**"** **Y-you'd b-better st-stop r-right where you are. Cause if you w-wanna hurt anyone else… You're gonna have to get through me, first."**

"I DO NOT WISH TO SEE MORE VIOLENCE BROTHER… YOU WERE RIGHT WHEREN'T YOU… THE HUMAN HASN'T CHANGED AT ALL! I COULDN'T HELP THEM CHANGE…" Papyrus cried, finally getting over his denial of the facts.

Sans didn't say anything, just rubbed the back of his brother's skull gently, letting him cry himself out. What was there to say…?

**What a brave little annoyance, "So cute, to think that you could stand before me, to stop me. I've killed everyone, even those parents that you keep talking about. You. Are. Nothing. You are a speck of dust that I've kept alive simply out of amusement… But now, now you're just in my way. I had a plan, but really it doesn't matter anymore."**

**Chara just idly slashed at them, not even bothering to try. The little annoyance was probably weak anyway, so there was no true reason to put effort into it.**

**Undyne had taken the hit.**

Alphys screamed.

A full bodied, horrible scream.

It was one of the worst things that they had ever heard, but considering the circumstances such a reaction fit right in.

It wasn't just the fact that Alphys saw her girlfriend get stabbed like that which caused the reaction though. It was some of the thoughts that went through Alphys mind the second that she saw it. Horrible thoughts, things that she shouldn't have even allowed to cross her mind in the first place, ' _Should have just let the kid die… why would you jump in like that?'_

Alphys felt guilty, dirty for thinking such a thing. It made the whole situation just that much worse.

Undyne was still alive, but she was barely holding it together, literally.

Anyone with eyes could see that such an injury was fatal.

Alphys was numb, which explained why she didn't feel herself being comforted by Undyne herself, as she just stared at the screen. No one else could even think of something to say, Undyne just comforted Alphys, no words in the face of her own death.

Frisk had tears in their eyes.

Asgore wore a stoic mask.

**"** **HAHAAA! LOOK AT THAT!" Chara said, laughing hysterically. It had been their plan in the first place, and just when they had given up on it, the plan actually worked!**

**"** **Undyne… You're hurt…" Monster Kid's voice came from behind Undyne's slashed body.**

**Undyne just smiled at the Kid though, "Hurt? It's nothing, but next time, listen when I tell you to leave, okay? I'll take care of this, get out of here Kid. Go to Hotland, and don't look back."**

**Monster Kid ran off, not even tripping once in his haste to make way.**

**When Kid was gone though, Undyne's form started to fade.**

**"** At least I saved the Kid…" Undyne muttered, her hand still petting her girlfriends head.

Maybe she hadn't saved everyone, but saving just one person… Wasn't that just as meaningful? Wasn't that kids wishes and dreams just as important as anyone else's? The answer was yes… and Undyne felt a weird sort of pride for herself, to know that in those circumstances, she would have done the same thing.

**"** **I said it was nothing, but look at this… How pathetic… Somehow with just one pathetically weak hit I'm already… Damn it… Papyrus… Alphys… Asgore…"**

**Her torso started to fall apart from the rest of her body.**

**"** **Just like that… I've failed you all…"**

Alphys sobbed.

"No, it wasn't a failure." Undyne practically snarled at herself, "We saved the kid… That was just as important as saving anyone else. As doing anything else!"

Undyne used the word 'We' and it was important. Using the word They was distance, it wasn't as if it was anything that I went through, using the word 'we' meant companionship, meant that it was recognized that the person on the screen was very similar. No one was getting out of this though, not until all of them used the word I to describe what was happening on screen.

That would be when they truly understood Sans.

**Her body seemed to be falling apart at the seams, but something was holding it back, "No…My body… It feels like it's splitting apart, like in an instant I'll scatter into a million pieces. Yet, deep, deep in my soul there is a burning feeling I can't describe. A burning feeling that won't let me die! This isn't just about monsters anymore, is it…? If you get past me, you'll destroy them all won't you? Monsters, humans, everyone… Everyone's hopes, everyone's dreams, I won't let you do that! Right now everyone in the world, I can feel their hearts beating at once. We all have one goal, to defeat YOU! Human… No… Whatever you are. For the sake of the whole world… I, Undyne, will strike you down!"**

**Undyne fazed back into complete existence changed.**

**Her armour looked stronger, her countenance darker, and she looked…**

**DETERMINAED**

Everyone was in awe, complete and utter awe.

Alphys lifted her head off her girlfriends shoulder as she gazed upon the screen, at the Undyne who looked so DETERMINED, so full of HoPe! Then Alphys realized something, it didn't lessen her awe, but surely raised her anxiety. Looking over at Sans, she knew that he felt the same.

DETERMINATION.

It was powerful, but too powerful for a monster. They weren't even built to have that emotion. Some monsters could bring it out, when the situation called for it. It was a dire last resort though, and not everyone was capable of such a thing. To see Undyne do it was amazing, but no less dangerous.

Chances are that if Undyne didn't finish the fight fast, she would end up burning herself out. Like so many experiments with DETERMIANTION had suffered.

"FUCK YES!" Undyne shouted, eyes gleaming with fascination.

**"** **You're gonna have to try a little harder than THAT." Undyne said, smirking at the 'human' in front of her.**

**Was this what their instincts had been warning them about earlier? The fact that Undyne would become so strong, so DETERMINED?**

**"** **Haha… Interesting… Undyne, hopefully you won't bore me like that pathetic skeleton that tried to fight me earlier." Chara taunted the transformed warrior, intending to test her control.**

Awe faded, and anger prevailed. This girl was so… enraging. Especially considering that they didn't have any clue why she was doing what she was doing. The way that she taunted her opponents was disgusting. There was no other word for it.

Especially when they were already going to fight.

What happened next was impressive though. Undyne in the room was practically shaking in rage, but…

**Undyne didn't even flinch. More important things were at stake here than the loss of one friend, and she was far too DETERMINED for the mention of Papyrus to send her into an uncontrolled rage, not when losing it now meant the loss of a whole race, no, the whole world.**

**"** **How DETERMINED you must be, so interesting to see it on someone else for once…" Chara knew that a monster couldn't keep up such a thing though…**

**Chara saved, feeling themselves become DETERMINED.**

"Will we finally be getting to understand the 'save points' that were mentioned before now?" Asgore mused, watching Chara save right before the battle started.

They were all curious, but the only one that knew was Sans and Frisk and neither of them were talking. That only made everyone more curious. What did they know that they didn't want to tell everyone? Sans of course, had a lot of things he kept close to the vest, Asgore knew this. Frisk on the other hand, was just a child… It was weird that they wouldn't talk about what was going on.

**The battle truly started, and Undyne attacked.**

**Chara was held in place with green magic and given a shield, but the spears were too fast. So fast that Chara couldn't even block the majority of them.**

**Chara had 56 HoPe, but now they only have 20.**

**It was to be expected, Undyne was strong now, far stronger than she'd ever been before. Still, Chara found it in their hurt body to pull their knife up and throw it at Undyne, still held in place with the green magic. Of course, the attack hit, Chara was too skilled for it not to.**

**23,000 HoPe…. That was ridiculous.**

**Chara strapped themselves in for a long and hard battle.**

**It wasn't easy, but Chara held off until they got at least half of Undyne's HoPe off… then Undyne started going faster, throwing in attacks that spun around in the opposite direction.**

**Chara died and reset.**

**The battle started again, Undyne not even knowing that it had once been fought before.**

"What the hell…"

Undyne was the one that said it, but pretty much everyone was thinking it.

Alphys mild whirled with possibilities, trying to understand what was going on before her. There wasn't anything that she could think of though, something that rarely happened to her, ever.

"Does this have to do with the save point?" Asgore muttered, still staring at the screen in shock. Eventually everyone ended up turning toward Sans, staring at him, waiting for an explanation. Sans on the other hand just closed his eyes and but his arms folded behind his head. He didn't want to explain, because if they knew this, it wouldn't be long before they knew everything else as well.

"BROTHER…Please…" Papyrus said, ending on a soft and confused tone. He didn't understand why everyone was making such a big deal of it, but he wanted everyone to be happy.

Sans signed.

"DETERMINATION is a powerful emotion, especially for humans. it can, in rare cases, give them ability above all others. the ability to reset time. if the human dies, it can start over from last save point, or from the start of their time in the underground." Sans explained, almost flippantly.

The fact that such a power existed… Was shocking, horrifying even.

"A-and we d-don't remember w-when it happens…. D-do we?" Alphys questioned her eyes wide and worried. The idea that someone could come in and do anything to anyone and no one would remember… It was a lot to take in.

"only people with nearly as much DETERMINATION as the person who resets can remember. although there are sometimes other factours at play, very rarely." Sans thought, thinking about his own situation.

"My child, do you have this power?" Toriel asked, looking toward Frisk, who had tears misting in their eyes.

'Yes' they signed toward the others in the room, but their whole body screamed of ashamed emotions. They weren't even DETERMINED enough to remember, at least if they could, Sans wouldn't be so alone… Instead they were weak. Frisk was ashamed of themselves.

'I lost the ability after we left the Underground… At some point in the Underground I was no longer the most DETERMINED person anymore…' Frisk reluctantly explained, but afterwards just stopped talking and hugged their mother, needing the comfort.

All they really wanted to do was dig their nails into themselves to release some of the horrible tearing guilt that they felt…

Mettaton on the other had been watching with greed in his eyes. He wanted to see the human get floored again and again for what they had done to his cousin. He wanted to see them get ripped apart, speared painfully, he wanted to see them HURT. It wasn't something that most monsters had ever felt before, but when it came to his family… Maybe wishing violence on the little demon WAS the answer.

**Chara did though, and she was better this time. In fact, she nearly had Undyne. HoPe down to 5,000 before Chara found themselves impaled by several magical spears at once. Yet, Chara had DETERMINATION.**

**Two resets weren't that bad, Undyne was certainly strong. Just was worthy of their attention as they had hoped she would be.**

**Really, Undyne was strong, if she had been facing a lesser enemy… But she wasn't, instead she was facing Chara. The she-demon who was feeding off the fact that their enemy was actually powerful enough to force them to load.**

**It only took three more loads, the whole time Chara's grin stretched farther across her face.**

Watching Undyne getting slowly picked apart by Chara's DETERMINATION to win was a startling moment. Even if anyone could face Chara, beat them, they would just come back and get better each time. There was nothing that anyone could do really, was there?

Eventually, Chara would get everyone.

It was a heartbreaking realization.

They weren't here to see evil get stopped, but to see evil win.

If Undyne couldn't somehow win, eventually Chara would find themselves at the top, and it was clear that at this point, Undyne was finished. There was nothing else that the Knight could bring that hadn't already been brought. No more tricks that hadn't been used, been learned by Chara.

**"** **Damn it… So even that power, it wasn't enough? Ha…Haha… If you… I f you think I'm gonna give up hope, you're wrong. 'Cause I've… got my friends behind me. Alphys told me that she would watch me fight you, and if anything went wrong she would evacuate everyone. By now she's called Asgore and told him to absorb the six human SOULs. With that power, this world will live on."**

"So… Maybe it isn't hopeless. Asgore will have enough strength to defeat the 'Thought Whisperer' with the human souls… Even if they come back, that should be an overwhelming power that they can't really face." Undyne worked out, a smile lighting on her face.

It no longer mattered that they were dying on screen, not when they had saved so many people by doing what they had done.

Truly a noble moment, something fitting of a True Heroine.

**But Undyne was melting, as strong as she was, her DETERMINATION was too strong. A monster couldn't possibly hold on to DETERMINATION for any longer than she had.**

**Undyne dusted.**

Undyne herself was perfectly fine with it, even on the screen she'd died with a smile on her face.

Alphys was sobbing, and so was Papyrus.

"I REALLY WISH THAT THE HUMAN WOULD JUST STOP NOW…" Papyrus said, sobbing loudly as he did so.

Asgore had silent tears running down his eyes. Not only had the person he'd almost considered a daughter just die before him on this screen, but also he knew, he KNEW, that their last request wouldn't come to pass. Asgore was arrogant at times, and he knew that there was no way he would take and use the souls. Not when the last human was on their way for him to take.

He wouldn't use the souls against the humans, because he wanted to open the barrier. It was a setback he knew that the person who was Asgore in the other universe wouldn't take.

It made him feel strangely guilty; almost as thought he didn't have the right to shed tears in the first place. Not when his alternate wouldn't follow through with Undyne's last wish.

What a fool he is.

**Chara wanted to grin as they felt the EXP and LOVE flow into their body, but they could not.**

**LOVE twelve, but with Asgore taking in the SOULs, and people being evacuated before Chara could kill them, it wouldn't be easy.**

**But that's what made it so damn fun.**

**"** **So I guess you're watching** **_Doctour_ ** **Alphys. I've killed your girlfriend; look at that dust right there! Would you might me to bring some to you, so that you can sprinkle it on yourself? I assumed that you were her favourite thing after all, it's only fair. No? Well I guess I could just…" Chara kicked the dust everywhere, spreading if across the room, leaving no hope of anyone being able to pick it up to spread it on her favourite things, as was customary.**

Alphys gagged, and if she was human, would have been sick to her stomach. The idea of someone spreading her girlfriend's ashes on top of her was sickening, horrifying, no words could express how horrible it was.

"I'm here… Shhh…" Undyne muttered into Alphys ear, trying to block out the sounds that Chara was making as she said that little speech.

It pained Undyne that there wasn't something else that she could do to help her girlfriend in the first place. It also was mildly irritating, the way that Chara was treating her remains, but it was nothing compared to what Chara was making Alphys feel, so she restrained herself from saying anything.

"SANS, I KNOW THAT YOU SAID THE THOUGHT WHISPERER WAS SICK IN THE HEAD, BUT EVEN SICK PEOPLE HAVE REASONS RIGHT? I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD REALLY LIKE TO KNOW WHY THEY DID THAT TO UNDYNE." Papyrus questioned, attempting to pull together some confidence, even as tears continued to fall from his eyes.

"sorry pappy, i just don't have an answer for you…" Sans muttered, looking truly regretful to not have the answers in that moment.

He truly didn't know either. Chara had never actually got what they wanted, so it wasn't a huge surprise that he didn't actually know what came after that. Chara had never actually said what it was that they were after either, not that Sans wanted to talk to the little murderer anyway.

"YOU WHIMP! What is that coming from your eyes!" Undyne shouted, leaving her girlfriends side for just a moment as she stomped close to Papyrus, all the way up in his face, "I thought I trained you better than this!"

It seemed to actually snap something in Papyrus, for once, that was a good thing. Papyrus stood at the ready, almost as an army man from the human world stood to attention.

"I APOLOGIZE CAPTAIN UNDYNE; IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN NYEH HEHEHEHEH" Papyrus spoke, good spirits seeming to return to him, despite the current situation, even if only for a moment.

**"** **You might evacuate everyone Allie, but I'm still going to get stronger, so strong that I kill everyone that's left… You won't be able to stop me. You can't stop me, no one can. Isn't it better to just sit back and watch it happen from behind your screen you little coward? I thought so! You couldn't change even if you wanted too."**

Toriel just stared. No one had actually noticed that blank stare yet, but it was all she'd been doing. Witnessing her child get killed nearly ten times, but watching her child act like this… Toriel didn't know what was worse, didn't know what reaction she should give.

Should she be angry at Undyne, for touching her child?

Understanding of the situation means that she should actually side with Undyne, but it was her CHILD they were talking about.

It almost made Toriel feel guilty, because no matter what she choose was there really a right answer? The situation had her frozen in suspended disability to choose. Internally though, Toriel knew that each time she saw her child kill someone, those feelings were starting to slip away, Toriel started to wish for someone to stop her child. Maybe that was the real reason behind her guilt in this situation.

It was all so confusing.

**Chara walked on, making her way to the next destination, leaving behind what remained of everyone's hopes and dreams.**

**The perspective switched.**

**Alphys was sobbing, eyes broken with shattered emotion. She had already called it in, made it clear that everyone needed to evacuate, so now she could let her emotions out, having fulfilled her promise. The things the human had said, they hit her so hard.**

**The scientist knew now, that she was useless.**

**The only thing that she COULD do was watch from behind a computer screen. She didn't have any strength of her own, and she couldn't even help Undyne.**

**Undyne.**

**A true hero…**

**She fought tooth and nail for what she'd believed in, and she was truly a beautiful person.**

**Alphys never got to tell her the true feelings that she'd held for Undyne.**

Alphys was sobbing as well, watching the version of herself on the screen that was actually going through all of the problems. The kinship that Alphys felt, knowing that if it was actually her in that situation… No changes would have been made; everything would have been done the same way.

It was horrifying to her, knowing that this was something that actually could have happened.

Undyne was starting to feel bad as well. Truthfully, she didn't think her death mattered all that much, not when she had saved everyone else around her that she'd protected. However, seeing Alphys so hurt, that made everything change if only just a little. Nothing mattered to Undyne more than protecting the people around her that she cared about, but Alphys feelings in generally seemed to be something Undyne hadn't thought about in that moment.

They should be, after all the situation only turned out so well because Undyne was willing to give up her life to stall the human.

It didn't mean that she wasn't heartbroken for her own inability to love Alphys enough to actually live for her.

**"** **What's the scariest type of dinosaur? … No answer? A terror-dactyl." A voice came from behind Alphys, showing Sans leaning against the doorway, he looked tired, grieved in his own way. What really drew attention though was the fact he was wearing Papyrus' scarf around his neck.**

Everyone's eyes went wide, was it horrible of them all to think that they hadn't actually thought about the Sans of the alternate universe?

Too much was going on; it didn't occure to them to wonder where he was and what he was doing. He'd just lost his brother, of course he would just evacuate right? But it seemed that they were wrong. Sans was actually in Alphys office, and although they didn't know the reason… They definitely knew they should have been paying more attention to what he could have possibly been doing the whole time.

Especially considering tha Sans was why they were all here in the first place.

After those thoughts passed though, Papyrus screeched at the pun that was made. Honestly? They knew that Sans fell back on humour like that, but to actually make a joke like that just as Undyne died?

Sans just shrugged, ignoring the scolding it was getting from Papyrus on his puns.

**"** **Y-You really t-think right now is t-the time f-for jokes S-sans…?" Alphys sobbed out, her stuttering for once caused by something completely different.**

**"** **I think that a joke is a good icebreaker for what I'm about to say. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to bring myself to say it, so here we go. Alphys, you've done pretty much everything you could. Your abilities lay here, and you've used them well. The human is taunting you with meaningless words. What you just did, you might have saved countless monsters, monsters that would have been dead without you. You're amazing Alphys." Sans said, placing a boney hand on Alphys shoulder as he comforted her.**

"Thanks Nerd…" Undyne muttered, watching the screen with wide and grateful eyes.

Sans was speaking so seriously on that screen in that moment, so comfortingly to Alphys. Saying the things that he knew she needed to hear, and was doing it well. Despite the joke at the start anyway.

"Truly Sans, you are _Sansational._ " Toriel said, an ever so slight smile coming to her lips. Sans gave a small chuckle, blushing at the genuine response his past self was getting.

**It was out of character for him, or maybe not so much.**

**If it had been his brother, he'd have said words almost exactly like that to cheer him up.**

**"** **W-why are you even here…?" Alphys asked, her voice small, almost a whisper.**

**Sans just shrugged, "i needed to check on something. needed to see for myself…"**

**"** **See what?"**

**Alphys was worried now.**

**"** **i needed to watch your snowdin tapes. i needed to see what happened… i just… i needed to know."**

"Why would you put yourself through such a thing, Sans?" Toriel said, her face having nothing but worry written on it. Surely it wasn't needed, he already knew Papyrus was dead, and even knew who did it.

"closure." Was the only thing that Sans said, completely ignoring everyone other than his brother after that.

Sans just stroked his brothers head, Papyrus was just watching the screen, because for once he didn't have anything to say. This whole situation period was zapping him of words.

**Needed to know how Papyrus died.**

**"** **How did you even get in here?" A serious breach of security, something Alphys should have asked about the moment she saw Sans, had she not been so blinded by her own emotions. For once, her voice was strong, not a hint of stutter.**

**Who would have thought, the thing holding Alphys back was everyone, yet losing them was far too much a price for the strength that Alphys had been hiding to come forward.**

**"** **i uh… took a shortcut. don't worry; your building is just as secure as it was before i came in." Sans said, rubbing the back of his skull, "anywho, I have to get going. i've got somewhere i have to be…"**

"SANS, I HAVE SEEN YOU DO MANY OF YOUR SHORTCUTS, BUT YOU HAVE ALWAYS REFUSED TO EXPLAIN THEM! HOW DOES IT WORK?" Papyrus said, turning toward his brother with no emotions other than an innocent and dazzling curiosity.

Papyrus was just in general so pure. Hurting one moment, but able to feel nothing but happiness or other light emotions the next. Sans was the one that got all the bad emotions, and this situation was giving Sans a whole new love for that fact.

"its hard to explain my shortcuts… but it's basically opening a door between two places and squishing them close together… i can't really think of a better explanation than that without a whole lot of math that no one would understand." Sans thought, not insultingly, over toward Alphys.

Alphys was an inventour, not a theorist. Even she would have difficulties understanding the idea of his shortcuts.

**"** **WAIT! You're evacuating right?" Alphys said, staring down Sans, "You have to, they've killed everyone, even U-Undyne, so you can't face them or anything… And if you don't e-evacuate they might get you. You aren't planning on doing anything stupid, are you?"**

**Alphys looked so emotionally stable right now, Sans couldn't bring himself to tell her the truth, so he twisted it.**

**As he was so good at doing.**

**"** **i'm going to the castle alphys, don't worry." Sans was, but really he was going for a different reason. His job… and vengeance. He wouldn't allow that human through, plus… He needed to see if Frisk was still anywhere in there, "i'll be seeing you alphys."**

"Sans…. Are you going to the hall?" Asgore said, his head facing toward the ground. He couldn't stand it, if he had to watch his judge fight and die against the human because of the job he'd been given.

Sans looked at the trodden man before giving an example of his shortcutting ability to faze right in front of the man, patting the amazingly tall man on the head, rubbing the soft hair between his fingers, "If I do, and I were to die there, it would have been my own choice, knowing the consequences. It wouldn't have been your fault at all."

Sans spoke low, just enough so that his King could hear, no one else.

The man nodded, but it still looked like he was weighed down by his choices.

**With that, Sans shortcut away, leaving the image of Alphys collapsing in tears once again the second she was along, no longer needing to keep up the strong façade.**

**"** **Why… What does that stupid human gain from any of this…?"**

The recording stopped, assumedly to give them all time to collect themselves.

"I just want to get this over with." Undyne finally said, speaking curtly, "Clearly this isn't going to be fun, but the sooner we get it over with, the sooner we can get home and away from all this. We shouldn't take any breaks."

It was an interesting way to look at it, and hardcore, as Undyne usually was. It represented her. Could they really just go through all this emotional stuff without a single break? It might be better though, like ripping off a Band-Aid.

Eventually everyone seemed to come to an agreement to do just that, and the screen started up once again. They didn't want it to though. They all just wanted it to be over. This was another sign that they were getting closer and closer to understanding Sans. After all, he was the one that all about, 'knew when to quit'


	5. Chapter 5

There was a depressing mood to the room, not that you could blame the group.

Sans of course, hid what he was feeling the easiest, but he was also feeling everything the deepest.

Seeing everyone's reactions to what was happening on the screen, it almost made him thankful that he was the only one to truly remember what happened. Before, he would have done anything for someone to actually remember with him, but now he saw what it was doing to his friends… Maybe if he could spare them this pain it would have been for the best.

Instead he couldn't hide what he felt inside, so now they were forced to watch it with him.

Clearly everyone would have just been happier if he'd been able to keep a better control on his emotions and acted normal.

Now everyone was starting to realize what happened and it was horrifying.

None of them actually put two and two together to make four yet. They would though. Before long they would start to wonder again, 'How does this help u Sans?' either that or it would come up when they saw his battle and he spoke of how he could remember to the little demon.

It just… Would have been better for them to not now.

They were practically all being tortured with this information.

" R, come on man… isn't this enough? look at them all, we are all emotionally worn. never mind the fact that this isn't getting any closer to having the me, nor will it." Sans spoke, hiding the desperation.

But no one came.

Everyone else had watched and hoped that they would get to go home, that perhaps th would let them out.

Their hopes were dashed once again, getting them yet another step closer t Sans.

"JUST WHO IS THAT GUY HUH?! WHERE DOES HE GET OFF ON MAKING EVERYONE UPSET LIKE THIS?!" Undyne practically roared again, but it was clearly mostly out of frustration.

Everyone was feeling that way.

The screen started up again, without another moment's notice.

**Chara made their way through Hotland with brutal efficiency. However it was clear to see that there was a problem. The population of the area was nowhere near as large as it should have been. This meant of course, that Undyne's plan had come to pass.**

**Doctour Alphys huh…**

**That shy little nerd that no one really cared about was the cause of this. The cause of Chara's current inability to do anything, the cause of Chara being unable to get more power, more LOVE.**

**Nothing would stand in their way of ripping that tail off the scientist's ass.**

"I'm glad that the plan that we put into motion seems to be working Alph, you have clearly done a really good job." Undyne said, praising her girlfriend, even though it wasn't actually Alphys in the flesh to have done it. A weird compliment to be sure, but Undyne's girlfriend blushed brightly just the same.

**It didn't take too long to get to the happy lab version, considering there were few to no interruptions. Everything looked the same, even the lights were on. Chara hadn't thought that Alphys would be stupid enough to actually stay there considering the situation – but hey, they'd been wrong before.**

"Oh thank god… I don't know what I would do if I had to watch Alphys die." Undyne muttered to herself, pulling her girlfriend in close.

They made a cute picture.

Toriel actually managed to pull a faint smile to her lips with the image before her, and smoothed her child's hair out as she watched. Toriel had always thought that the fish and dinosaur monster made an adorable couple, and seeing their bond strengthen was one of the most amazing things that they would probably get out of his horrible situation.

A silver lining that would have remained otherwise unseen.

There were also other, darker things to think about.

Soon enough she would have to talk to her child about what they were doing to themselves. Toriel watched whenever they got overly emotional, and saw what they were doing. Digging their nails into themselves, almost to the point of drawing blood, in fact, Toriel thought she saw her child pull their own blood at least once.

It wasn't something that could be allowed to continue. Toriel cared too much for Frisk to allow something like that.

Despite what Undyne said, they would probably have another break, and once they did, Toriel would pull Frisk to the side, along with Sans and Asgore most likely, and deal with the issue.

Until then, watching the horrible screen and maybe a few more cute moments between Undyne and Alphys would have to do.

**"** **OH THERE YOU ARE~" A voice erupted with a mechanical whirl to it, never mind the over abundance of overdramatic flair, "YOU UGLY LITTLE CREATURE, YOU'VE MADE QUITE A NAME FOR YOURSELF. SUCH INFAMY, I WOULD BE IMPRESSED!"**

"OH METTATON HAS FINALLY MADE AN APPEARANCE! DOES THAT MEAN THAT THE THERE WILL BE ABOTHER GAME SHOW? I LOVED THE ONE WE SAW WHEN WE WERE IN THE UNDERGROUND." Papyrus said, his skeletal hand motioning toward the screen.

Mettaton however, was absolutely sure on one thing, "Sorry darling, but there is no way I would do that in this current situation. Most likely I have some sort of plan or reason to be there, but it's not for a TV show. I now that I can be horrible… But in this screen world my cousin just died, never mind the whole Underground facing a horrible threat. I'm almost absolutely sure that in this case I would not be doing anything to gain views."

Mettaton felt sick to himself, that Papyrus would even think that of him.

Still, he knew that Papyrus was innocent, probably didn't even think about the consequences of such an action.

Somehow it still hurt, even with that logic applied.

**There was a dramatic pause; Chara lifted an eyebrow toward the robot before them, wondering if they would get to the punch line, or if they would have to attack the calculatour first.**

**"** **Instead I just get to face you knowing that you killed my cousin, Doctour Alphys told me everything. I wouldn't worry about finding her, she's long gone by now. Well you were busy killing everyone that you came across, she evacuated everyone in the Hotland area that she could…" The whole time Mettaton spoke, his voice was venomous, almost restraining himself from attacking the demon before him physically.**

**There was a hidden pain in their as well.**

**But the rage that was practically wafting off of him was making such pain nearly impossible to see.**

Sans almost felt happy that there was such expression on the Calculatour spirit, something so powerful that you didn't even need to be there to feel it.

Sans knew that Papyrus liked that hunk of metal. It was something that both the Calculatour and Papyrus both felt actually, which meant that Sans needed to think of his brothers feelings first. Seeing that the Calculatour was so angry, it meant that Sans could at least somewhat trust that he wouldn't hurt Papyrus on purpose.

He'd seen it when they watched Glad Dummy get killed, but seeing it on the screen was somehow much more reassuring.

**"** **That Alphys… she really is the only smart one isn't she." Mettaton spat out, internally chastising his own rage for what it was making him do here. Still, not only was it stalling for time to get more people evacuated, but it was also he just wasn't able to bring himself to stop wishing to kill the demon before him.**

**It was as if he was taken over by something, nearly unable to stop himself from attacking at every waking moment that the demon was staring at him with such empty curiosity.**

**"** **Clearly smarter than you, Calculatour." Chara practically purred out, their eyes still watching the robot curiosity and with full attention, fingering their weapon.**

**"** **Oh how sassy! You're just itching to get your hands on me, aren't you? Maybe that's similar to how you dealt with my darling cousin. I saw the whole thing you know. I wanted to see how it went down… You are a sick person. You don't deserve to live. Someone is going to kill you, and I will watch and laugh with glee that you, as empty as you are, would never be able to understand."**

"I don't think truer words have ever been spoken." Mettaton spat out, agreeing with himself. Seeing his cousin get killed like that left him impacted, and as horrible as it was, Mettaton didn't want to risk looking at Frisk.

"Honestly Mettaton I'm a bit surprised that you care so much. You've always seemed like a self centered dweb." Undyne mentioned, in her typically brutally honest character.

Mettaton stood up and got in front of Undyne, actually glaring at the fish monster.

"I've done everything I've done not only for myself, which I won't deny, but mostly for Blooky and my other cousins. You don't know a damn thing about me sardine, and don't pretend you do darling. Making assumptions like that, just makes a bitch out of you."

Undyne stood up and faced down Mettaton with a glare of her own, "EXCUSE ME?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!"

Mettaton was about to snarl something back, probably something deservingly rude, when they both saw a motion out of the corner of their eye, down below their wastes.

Frisk seemed to be frantically waving their hands for attention, once having it, signing quickly and roughly, ' _No fighting! We have to see enough horrible stuff right now, we need to stick together!'_

Their stubborn expression made it impossible to refuse.

Mettaton and Undyne shared one last glare before going back to where they were sitting, Undyne pulling her girlfriend back up against her, and Mettaton still practically shaking in rage at the monsters allegations.

"You know that wasn't nice U-undyne… He is doing everything for his c-cousins…." Alphys confirmed in a low voice to her girlfriend, so that they weren't overheard.

She had always known that Mettaton was actually surprisingly selfless when it came to his family. It was part of the reason that she agreed to help make him a body in the first place.

**It was impossible for Mettaton's current form to glare, but that didn't stop him from doing so incorporeally.**

**"** **Oh, you sound like you want to go Calculatour~ I can certainly send you to wherever your cousin is right now. I have no issues, I like doing charity work!"**

**Chara got into a position to lunge, manic grin spreading across their face.**

**"** **Oh no darling, not just yet. We'll meet again though, I promise you that."**

**Mettaton got out of their quickly, knowing that he wasn't any match for the demon in his current form. Once he got his ungraded though, he would come back and kill that** **_thing_ ** **once and for all. For his cousin.**

"Would you look at that, the dweb did just run away… Like expected." Undyne said, the words echoing around the room.

Sans was actually pretty outraged, knowing damn well what it seemed Mettaton was going through, he couldn't believe that one of his friends would act like this. Mettaton himself looked like he was going to get up and rip Undyne a new one. Something that at this point, Sans would have liked to watch. The Fish Monster would have deserved it.

Instead someone surprising stepped up to the plate, "UNDYNE! THAT WAS NOT A NICE THING TO SAY. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BELIEVE YOU SHOULD APOLOGIZE. METTATON IS MOST LIKELY WORKING ON A PLAN, AND HE SHOULDN'T WASTE HIS LIFE AGAINST THE THOUGHT WHISPERER WITHOUT A PLAN. YOU ARE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD… I… I DON'T WANT TO ADMIT THIS BUT, SHOULDN'T YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT? BESIDES, EVERYONE IS MEANT TO BE EVACUATING ANYWAY, AND THAT WAS YOUR OWN PLAN!"

Papyrus stood up for Mettaton, before he could even think about it.

As soon as he had, Papyrus' face flushed completely orange, and he ducked down to put his face into his brother's hoodie, hiding the taint that was upon his whole face.

Mettaton stared at Papyrus with stars in his eyes. That cute little cinnamon roll was probably one of the most amazing people he'd ever met.

Undyne was in shock. Considering what Mettaton had said to her the robot deserved it right? Thinking back on it though… Wasn't it her that caused this? Urgh, "I'm sorry Mettaton."

The robot didn't deserve an apology for his cowardice on screen, but if it made Papyrus happier, who was she to refuse.

**Chara was left staring after him, finding the situation mildly interesting. The Calculatour had always seemed like the type of person that wouldn't think twice about crossing someone to get what they wanted, yet here the robot seemed to actually care about his family. The robot had practically sworn revenge for what happened. Of course, there was no way that the robot could actually go through with it, being practically the weakest of the majour fights in the Underground, but it was interesting seeing him get so worked up.**

**Ah well, time to kill more monsters before they get off their ass and into hiding.**

**After all, they were soooo close to a LOVE increase.**

**A few Vulcan were around, which was a nice little EXP catch. They didn't even try to fight back! It was hilarious!**

**There were also some Tsundere Planes, but they were simple enough to kill. It was weird though, they didn't turn to dust immediately when they died, and instead they flew into the ground and crashed, shattering themselves into a million pieces.**

**It was quite the show. ~**

**Eventually though, something much more difficult caught Chara's eye, and they rushed over.**

**Two armoured figures stood there, and Chara remembered them becoming lovers when Frisk was the one that controlled the timeline.**

**Maybe killing one of them in front of the other would get them to realize their feelings? Chara was feeling particularly helpful today.**

**"** **You're here… So that means that Undyne… That Captain Undyne is dead… We will avenge her!" With that, the two armoured figures attacked.**

"Shouldn't they have evacuated?!" Undyne frantically questioned, worried about her underlings, but was not only impressed, but also touched that they had stayed and where now attempting to avenge her.

"T-they probably a-are b-buying time to g-get everyone to s-safety." Alphys theorized.

**Chara didn't waste any time.**

**Quickly grabbing the first one that lunged at her, RG 01, Chara stabbed him right through the armour that should have at least blocked one blow; he was dust before he even hit the ground.**

**RG 02 was too shocked to move.**

**"…** **01…?" RG 02 gasped, just staring at the dust that was once his friend.**

It was a horrible sight, but it was sickening to notice that they were actually kind of getting used to it. They were almost numb at watching the death of such an honourable Royal Guardsman.

What was happening to them?

"I truly have some amazing people working for me." Asgore said, humbled and saddened as he watched the screen.

No one spoke afterwards, too caught up in their own numbness.

**"** **You didn't get the chance to tell him how you felt, did you~ It's okay, now that he's dead you can let go of that anxiety, didn't I do you such a nice favour?" Chara looked up at the man in mock innocence. Somehow though, they were feeling particularly cruel today.**

**"** **Anyway, I'll be on my way now. You stay here okay~ Just thinking about what could have been… If you had the strength to stop me."**

**Chara walked away, but of course they couldn't just do it without any flair. It would be a crime not to cause the biggest impact as possible on the armoured man. So, they kicked the dust filled armour of the man's potential lover into the lava below, even as the man who was still alive attempted to stop them.**

**Maybe a little bit too hard.**

**Chara watched as both the armour, and the man that had lunged to protect his crushes remains, both fell into the fiery depths below.**

**"** **Oh… I guess that's what that type of love gets you. Nothing but pain, I'm so glad that I don't have to deal with feelings like that." Chara just tisked the fallen warriors mockingly, before continuing on their way.**

"God, Asgore, where did we go wrong…?" Toriel enquired, watching with a continued mute horror, reaching a hand over toward him almost begging for the comfort that her husband could provide.

The past didn't matter anymore, the current did, and the current Toriel needed comfort as she watched her child murder an entire race.

Asgore took Toriel's hand in his own with a sense of remorse. Just the smallest taste of something that because of his actions he would forever miss out on. Considering the fact that on the screen he clearly wasn't doing anything, he didn't deserve Toriel in any world.

A daunting and heavy fact to face.

"Toriel…. Do not worry. We might have made mistakes with our other children. With Frisk though… We will protect them, care for them the right way."

Frisk climbed onto Asgore's lap for the first time, cuddling up to him.

Sans watched with a deep sort of jealously. He wanted that closeness, but he did have an adorable little brother who was still hiding his embarrassed face in Sans neck, so what could you do?

**Leaving behind hopes and dreams that were falling to the depths of fiery despair.**

**A thought struck.**

**If there was one species in the whole underground that was arrogant enough to stay, but intelligent enough to provide an amusing and entertaining battle, what species would it be? The answer was simple really.**

**The spiders.**

**Chara gave a long hard laugh, and made her way toward where they knew the spiders to be.**

**Muffet's voice rang out across the whole area, mocking humans as killers who hated spiders, "I hear that they even tear the legs of spiders off."**

**"** **You're right. I do like to tear spider's legs off! One leg at a time, watching as they squirm around to escape, but are unable to because guess what?! They don't have legs anymore~ Sometimes I like to leave them just one leg, you know, just to see if they can use to hop to safety. I haven't actually seen it yet, but hey, it could happen! I just need to continue trying."**

Everyone was watching and listening with a sense of disgust. Wondering if perhaps that was something that the demon actually did, or just something that they made up.

It was impossible to tell.

**Chara made pulling motions with their hand, as if to illustrate the idea of pulling the legs off the spider.**

**Muffet stared at the human with a growing sense of horrour.**

**Quickly, Muffet engaged the human in battle, not wanting to risk all of her underlings getting caught under the boot of this clearly psychotic human.**

**"** **Ohh~ You want to fight me? I'm all for it." Chara however, didn't reach for their knife, instead they just slowly walked closer to Muffet, not even bothering to lunge. They knew after all, that such a weak willed creature wouldn't be able to move.**

**The battle rules wouldn't allow it.**

"Why isn't that retard moving?!" Undyne expressed with a sense of anger and worry.

"It's the rules that I discussed with everyone a little while ago. She is unable to actually do anything until he's her turn, and the human always gets the first turn. It's horribly unfair of the human to have such an edge, but not even the strongest willed monsters can really escape the consequences of that contract the higher powers so to speak, made.

"Everyone needs to know about this."

Surprisingly, it was Toriel who spoke those words.

"Asgore…. You have been an idiot lately, but this isn't something that could, or should be kept from the rest of the monsters back were we come from. What if they get in a fight with a human? Everyone needs to know about the possible situation that they may find themselves in. They need to know that they need to run from humans before they start an actual battle."

Asgore looked almost offended by these words, but didn't really act or raise his voice, not with his child on his lap, taking in his comfort, "It wasn't something that anyone needed to know until now. Besides, monsters have a large and unfair advantage over humans. You see, humans rarely if ever get over 100 HP, whereas monsters typically have HP in the thousands."

"That doesn't make it right to keep this from them." Toriel said her voice stern.

Asgore practically jumped and immediately folded to the stern manner of his wife, "I will of course, tell everyone as soon as we get home."

Sans could feel the jealously boiling up again.

**Chara grabbed one of Muffet's arms and pulled, it took a lot of force to get the arm to dethatch, but Chara was nothing it not determined! It separated with a ploff of dust erupting, the arm quickly disintegrating into nothing but slightly purple coloured remains.**

"This is just sick…. Somehow I know what this demon is planning…" Undyne said, practically gagging, most of the others looking on the bad end of the sick spectrum as well.

**Muffet quickly backed up once it was her turn, utter horror covering each of her features and all of her eyes wide open in blaring pain.**

**Muffet through everything that she had at the monster before her, trying with all her might to kill it.**

**Chara dodged everything.**

"THIS HUMAN IS AMAZING, HORRIBLE, BUT AMAZING. THEY BARELY IF EVER GET HIT BY AN ATTACK. HOW DO THEY DO IT SANS?" Papyrus asked, having finally gotten over his embarrassment and going back to watching.

"Practice." Was all that Sans said.

**It wasn't long before Muffet was frozen again, unable to move herself.**

**This continued on, each time Muffet lost another arm. Another, and another, and another, until all of them were gone. Of course, Chara didn't just leave it like that.**

**They had a theory that they had been talking about earlier.**

**Another turn gone by, and Muffet was thrown to the floor, Chara pulling one of her legs off, and Muffet could no longer contain the scream of utter terrour that passed her lips. It echoed throughout the whole Underground, sending a chill down the remaining monsters backs.**

**It was Muffet's turn.**

**_'_ ** **_Gotta get away I have… I have to… get away…'_ ** **Muffet through, somehow making her way onto her single foot and trying to get away, but she stumbled and feel after a few hops. The demon just laughed hysterically.**

**"** **I knew it! There was a spider that could do it. Of course, you didn't get very far… Oh well! I couldn't let free EXP walk out anyway. I'm going to kill you now. Don't worry though, all these children of yours, I won't do them like I did you. I don't have the time, sadly. Instead I'll just step on them one by one, right in front of their siblings. It won't traumatize them for long though, as they'll be dead and with you soon after!"**

**With that, Chara dusted Muffet and made her way through all the other little spiders.**

**They never stood a chance.**

"Even the children…" Toriel said, emotions in her voice utterly closed off, "Regardless, I now that most of us agreed what we would be no longer having any breaks. However, I would like to request one, as Asgore, Sans, Frisk, and I have some important things that we need to talk about."

Her tone of voice wasn't very indicative for a request however; it seemed a lot more like it was a demand.

Everyone just nodded along, Sans and Asgore quicker than all the others. They knew how snappy Toriel could sometimes get if she wasn't listened to right away. With that decided, the four left the room and the screen went black, giving them a small break. 


	6. Chapter 6

Last Time:

_"Even the children…" Toriel said, emotions in her voice utterly closed off, "Regardless, I now that most of us agreed what we would be no longer having any breaks. However, I would like to request one, as Asgore, Sans, Frisk, and I have some important things that we need to talk about."_

_Her tone of voice wasn't very indicative for a request however; it seemed a lot more like it was a demand._

_Everyone just nodded along, Sans and Asgore quicker than all the others. They knew how snappy Toriel could sometimes get if she wasn't listened to right away. With that decided, the four left the room and the screen went black, giving them a small break._

Chapter Six:

Toriel, Sans, Asgore, and Frisk all made their way into another ‘room’ following Toriel’s lead. They didn’t really know what this was about, but it was certain to be important, considering the way that Toriel separated them from the main group. It didn’t take them that long to get to their new destination, at which point Toriel turned toward the three following her, a somber expression painted onto her face.

“Come here my child.” Toriel said, holding her arms out, intending for Frisk to enter a hug with her.

Frisk practically ran into their mothers arms, snuggling close.

“I have noticed some trends that are troubling in your behavior my child… I am worried. This is something that needs to be addressed and fixed… For your own safety.” Toriel softly murmured, running her hand through Frisk’s hair, comforting them as the ‘intervention’ continued on.

“You’ve been hurting yourself.” Toriel stated, feeling Frisk tense up at the words.

Frisk knew that it wasn’t good for them to do something like that, but there wasn’t any other way for them to get the emotions out. They couldn’t really talk them out, expressions weren’t enough…. and it just festered inside otherwise… That was the best way to take care of it, or so Frisk thought.

Sans himself looked more than mildly horrified at the prospect of Frisk doing something like that to themselves. Frisk didn’t deserve to feel the kind of emotion that would drive someone to do that to themselves, and honestly Sans wished he could just take those feelings away from the little innocent human. Sans could count the timelines on one hand, but he knew that there were times when he was the parent of Frisk, and not just the Dunkle. The idea that his kid, _his kid_ , was harming themselves….

Plus the guilt.

How had Sans not noticed that Frisk was doing something like that in the first place?

There was someone else feeling more guilt than Sans however, and that was Asgore. Despite the fact that him and Tori were going through a rough patch, Frisk was still their child. Asgore couldn’t think of a reason behind Frisk harming themselves, other than what they had gone through because of Asgore’s own actions. Technically, as far as Asgore could figure, it was his own fault that his child was harming their own body. The giant man took a step back, horrified at his own thoughts and realizations.

Frisk noticed their reaction, but didn’t know how to reassure their guardians, ‘Please, this is the right way. It is… This is the way that I have to deal with it. I put pain onto others, now I put it on myself to make up for it. That’s the right way, the equal way, right?’ Frisk signed, confused at the reaction, ‘Plus, I need to get my emotions out somehow….’

Sans frantically shook his head back and forth, but didn’t know any words to say.

Toriel seemed just as speechless, hugging Frisk closer to herself. It suddenly dawned on her just how dangerous thoughts like those could be. Sure, she’d only seen their child committing minor offenses of self harm, but Toriel could actually lose her child again if something like this continued on.

Asgore was shockingly, the one that found something to say, “Child… Who do you think that you’ve done harm too?”

As far as anyone other than Sans knew, Frisk hadn’t actually hurt a single being.

Even Sans knew that what Frisk had done, was nothing! It had all been Chara. Maybe there were some times where Frisk was manipulated into doing bad things, but those manipulations where caused by Chara, so really Frisk should be guiltless in this whole situation.

It was Sans responsibility to have made that clear to them, and he never did. Now he had two other horrified parents that would have to deal with the outcome of something that he didn’t properly take care of in the first place like he should have. It also came to another point that Sans didn’t want to have to face, if he was going to clear this up with Frisk, then Toriel and Asgore would _know._

_Sans didn’t want ANYONE to know._

Such things were no longer an option, as he now had to fix his own screw up.

‘It’s all my fault.’ Frisk started to sign, before Sans grabbed their hands and made them stop for a second, touching Frisk’s head softly.

“Let me just explain a few things okay Frisk. Then we can listen to what you have to say. I just want everything to be perfectly clear.” Sans said, any laziness long since evaporated from his tone.

“What we are watching on screen right now, it’s all something that has actually happened. A hard pill to swallow I’m sure, but seeing as how I’m the only one that actually remembers it completely, well, I guess you can say you don’t have any right to refute the facts. Regardless, I’m sure that Frisk is allowing blame to fall on them because they are feeling guilty, but they need to remember that it wasn’t them that is doing these things, it’s all Chara. Frisk…. Please accept this as fact. I’m sorry I haven’t made this clear before, mostly because I don’t like talking about what happened…. Nor do I like the idea of anyone knowing… but Frisk…. Kid… You have to listen to me. It’s not your fault. It was never your fault. It will NEVER be your fault. Even if everyone discovered that what is happening on the screen is real, not a single one of them would blame you, because they all know that it isn’t you doing those things. Okay Frisk?” Sans finished his speech, trying to make the largest impact possible.

Toriel and Asgore were shocked at the sort of things that were coming from Sans mouth. The things that were being shown on screen where real? At this point, most of them just thought that they were seeing an alternate universe or something like that, but instead they were seeing something that actually happened. The idea that both Frisk and Sans had been in that kind of situation, and no one could remember it, that they had forgotten it…

Just how many emotional blows could they take, before everyone completely broke?

Both Asgore and Toriel chocked down their own thoughts though, and instead just gave a wan smile toward their child, “Frisk, we understand so much better now. Sans is right, it definitely isn’t your fault at all. I wish we had known sooner… So that we could have comforted you correctly… But truly we all know that nothing is your fault. You are just a child; it’s us, the adults to blame when something like this goes wrong.”

Toriel, Asgore, and Frisk came together in a hug, Frisk leaking helpless tears at the reassurance that they were getting from their family. Sans just watched the moment with a smile, hiding the fact he wanted to be there with them, but at this moment, he certainly didn’t deserve it. Instead, the family deserved to deal with their problems without his toxic involvement any farther. If it hadn’t been for Sans in the first place, Frisk would NEVER have hurt themselves.

“I’m going to go see my brother now. I hope that you learn that it isn’t your fault Frisk, we all know that you are pure hearted, Kid. I hope that you don’t tell anyone… I don’t want anyone to know that I can remember. It’s not important anyways…” Sans said slowly, carefully, before leaving the family to comfort each other.

Walking away toward the others, leaving his true wants behind.

Sitting down next to his brother a moment later, Sans announced, “well, we should give them a bit more time, but they should be done soon. then we can hopefully finish up here and get home…”

About ten minutes later, they did come down, red eyes burning from all the crying, and Neither Toriel or Asgore so much as looked at Sans.

Sans forced down so many emotions before they could over boil, he could practically feel himself becoming physically sick at the lack of reaction that some of the people he cared most for in the world especially rejecting him.

They didn’t tell his secret though.

Everyone else looked at Sans, Asgore, Toriel, and Frisk with curiosity on the tip of their tongue, but they could feel it. There was a shift in the air, something big had happened. No one wanted to tip the balance any farther.

The screen started up.

**Chara was making their way through the Underground still, going into the Core, and killing any soul unfortunate enough to have not evacuated. Still, their LOVE wasn’t growing fast enough for their tastes. Nothing for it though, the next big EXP grab would probably be that Calculatour, who they would eventually bump into.**

**A few hours later, Chara was actively searching for the Calculatour, wondering where the damn thing was.**

**He hadn’t been at the cooking station, nor at the bomb station, he had not been at his own resort either. It was seriously tiring to look for the damn thing; Chara was wondering if they should just forget about it and move on. Was the Calculatour actually worth it?**

**Still, the fact that they would be able to taunt the guy about killing his family member… It made the opportunity just too sweet for them to actually pass up.**

**Finally.**

**“MY, MY. SO YOU’VE FINALLY ARRIVED.” Mettaton sneered toward the human, “AFTER OUR FIRST MEETING, I REALIZED SOMETHING GHASTLY. YOU’RE NOT JUST A THREAT TO MONSTERS, BUT TO HUMANITY AS WELL, NORMALLY I WOULD FIND THAT TO BE THE BIGGEST ISSUE, AS YOU CAN’T BE A STAR WITHOUT AN AUDIENCE. Then I realized.”**

“That’s disgusting.” Undyne said, a glare pointed toward the Mettaton that was in the room with them. The idea what he would stand up to the human for such a petty reason…? It wasn’t something that Undyne could comprehend.

Mettaton himself was rightfully offended at the accusation, “Well Captain, perhaps you should wait a moment to see what I have to say before you jump to conclusions like that. Now shut up.” Mettaton sassed toward the fishmale.

Undyne looked offended right back, no one talked to her like that. Most everyone gave her respect, thought her opinions were worthwhile, and usually thought she was right. It hadn’t occurred to her that she could be wrong, but the more that she thought about it…

Undyne had known Mettaton, and had seen the way that he treated Alphys in general. It wasn’t respectful, it could actually be done right mean. Undyne didn’t like the Calculation because of that, but was it really her place to jump in? Undyne resolved to keep her mouth shut from now on, when it came to matters concerning the Calculatour, clearly she was too biased.

**Mettaton’s voice stopped atoning dramatically, and dropped at least three octaves, “I really don’t care about humanity; I don’t even care about monsters… What I really care about, is my family. Most of my family is in a state that you can’t reach them in, there would never be anything a human such as yourself could do to touch them.”**

**“But you got around that.”**

**“You found my cousin in the only state that they were venerable, at the time that my cousin was happy for the first time in their life… And you destroyed that.” Mettaton practically snarled at Chara, who was passively listening with a smile on their face.**

**“I’m going to destroy you…” Mettaton finished, glaring darkly, “You won’t even see it coming.”**

“METTATON, WHAT POWERFUL WORDS! THIS IS WHY I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM SUCH A FAN OF YOURS.” Papyrus said, practically leaping in the air in a show of enthusiasm.

“wow bro, you’re so cool. i can see why you always liked him, you’re deductions on the guy were spot on.” Sans mentioned, his eyes lightening up just the smallest bit, only to dim when he realized that neither Toriel or Asgore had so much as glanced at him the whole time, even as he spoke, not a glace was spared his way.

Had he permanently damaged any chance of ANY relationship with the two? He’d thought that they were friends… Didn’t friends forgive one another? Sans didn’t really know anymore, but was shocked that he cared as much as he did. Usually the only thing that mattered was his brother, and here he was worried about someone else’s feelings towards him.

He’d just have to find some way to cut those from him, after all, Sans knew his first priority should be his brother.

**Chara didn’t, because Mettaton started the battle, and quickly finished it.**

**Taking**

**The**

**First**

**Turn**

Everyone else was in shock as well, ESPECIALLY Sans and Asgore.

The rules were only just explained to them, but the impact that the rules made was completely pounded into them when they saw the battle between Chara and Muffet. Yet Mettaton of all monsters broke the rule and attacked first. Why? Because he was a robot?

Sans and Asgore were the most shocked by this.

Both of them knew the rules in their full length, and knew that it wasn’t easy to break a rule like that. The conviction you had to have, the emotions you had to feel, the magical power that you had to possess, and everything had to be in the perfect storm to break a rule. This was especially true if you didn’t know what the rules were in the first place. The fact that Mettaton had broken one, that was beyond comprehension.

Mettaton himself was proud that he’d been able to do something like that.

“METTATON TRULY IS A STRONG PERSON, SEE CAPTAIN UNDYNE?” Papyrus announced, as if he knew such a thing was going to happen the whole time.

Undyne just nodded, somewhat in shock herself. Not to mention insanely jealous. Why hadn’t she been able to break the rules? If she had, then maybe she could have stopped the little demon, it didn’t make sense to her. What did Mettaton have that Undyne didn’t?

Mettaton just looked at Papyrus was literally hearts in his eyes, before remembering the seriousness of the situation, and fixing his eyes back on the screen.

**Chara was shocked, so shocked that they couldn’t move, just stood at their last save point with shock on their face. They had never seen anything like that before, hadn’t known it was possible even. Not a single monster had EVER taken the first turn, there were some that did weird things, like Asgore had the ability to take away the Mercy button, but this was the first time something like this had ever happened.**

**Chara smirked.**

**Now that was something interesting enough to get their full attention.**

**Now that they knew it was coming, it was time to start with a counter attack, and Chara walked forward, listening to Mettaton repeating the same dialogue, before dodging his attack as quickly as possible. It wasn’t as easy as Chara would have thought; they lost almost all of their life. Mettaton himself looked shocked and angry that the human had the audacity to survive.**

**Chara attacked.**

**Mettaton himself lost almost as his life as well, just one hit, and thousands of HoPe points were gone. Mettaton knew then, that he couldn’t allow Chara to get another hit on him.**

**Chara died again, a frown on their face, but they went back into the fight.**

**Mettaton attacked first, Chara lost only 30 percent of their life.**

**Mettaton was nearly down for the count after Chara attacked him, but Chara ended up surviving his second attack.**

**Mettaton was hit again, and done for, “Heh… what a demon. I couldn’t even avenge my family… So pathetic.”**

Silence prevailed, but ultimately everyone was impressed. That was almost sickening, that such a feeling came from a battle where they were watching one of their friends die. Had they really become so numb to it all?

Yet the way that Mettaton stood up to Chara, it was amazing considering he wasn’t anywhere near someone like Undyne’s level.

“That was impressive.” Sans said, his tone matter of fact.

Many nodded along, other than Toriel and Asgore, who ignored the fact that Sans even spoke.

Sans could practically feel his soul breaking, but his outward appearance didn’t change. He did however, press his body as close to Papyrus as possible, his brother wouldn’t mind, and Sans needed to feel near someone right now.

Sans needed to remember, needed to keep in mind the fact that he was the only one to remember, Toriel and Asgore didn’t have the same memories as him, didn’t know how much the actions that they were taking could hurt him.

All they knew was that they were protecting Frisk.

That would just have to be enough.

**With that, Mettaton became dust as well, joining all the rest.**

**Chara was wearing a frown though. It was the first time that a monster had even broken the rules to such an extent, it was worrying for them. Considering most other monsters were dead though, they had to put down for the fact that it wouldn’t end up being a problem again.**

**Chara’s LOVE had increased.**

**Perfect.**

**The feeling of their increasing power made them forget all about meeting the first rule breaker.**

**For now.**

“I thought that no one could break the rules.” Undyne spoke, confusion rip in her voice, as the screen stopped showing picture for a moment.

Asgore answered her, “That is true, the rules can be broken though, and it’s not easy. It’s not something that everyone can do either. Honestly I don’t really understand how the, ‘rule breaking’ thing works. It does have some sort of cost though, something different to anyone that does it. Something that never goes away, even in death. That’s really all I know about it.”

Sans now had a theory.

Sans knew why he remembered.


	7. UPDATE AND APOLOGY

I feel so guilty looking at the commemt section now.  I promise I'm not dead dead and I will eventually update.  I would never abandon a story completely even if it takes months between updates.  I don't know when I will,  but eventually it will happen.  Sorry again.... 


	8. Not a new chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Update on current situation with this story

It might be awhile... As one of my most recent commentes said, I should let you guys know. I probably won't be updating this any time soon. It will probably be months before I actually update this, especially since I have to read over and tweak the old stuff considering I lost this stories outline in my absence. I wish I could give you readers better news. I hope you all have a great day and I am once again very sorry about the lack of activity.


End file.
